(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday said he had held a Tuesday meeting with U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns, who is in the region to discuss the war in Ukraine.
On Monday, Burns met President Vladimir Putin’s spy chief in Turkey for the first known high-level, face-to-face U.S.-Russian contact since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
“We had a meeting with him … (we) talked about all the issues that are important to Ukraine,” Zelenskiy told a televised news conference, saying the two men had discussed what he called Russia’s nuclear threat.
Burns visited Kyiv as Russia attacked the city with missiles. Zelenskiy said the CIA head had spent time in a bomb shelter before the two men met.
In Washington, a U.S. official said Burns had traveled to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian intelligence counterparts and Zelenskiy following his meeting in Ankara.
Polish President Andrzej Duda met Burns in Warsaw on Wednesday, the head of Poland’s National Security Bureau said.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by David Ljunggren and Jonathan Oatis)
