Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said that Ukrainian drones had allegedly attempted to attack Vladimir Putin’s residence. Ukraine rejected the accusations. Against this backdrop, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources, that the CIA had briefed Donald Trump: according to US intelligence assessments, there was no attempt to attack Putin.
The CIA informed Donald Trump that Ukrainian drones had struck targets in Russia’s Novgorod region, but that Vladimir Putin’s residence was not the objective. The Wall Street Journal reported this, citing sources familiar with the conclusions of US intelligence. According to those sources, the CIA’s assessment explicitly states that “there was no attempt to attack Putin.”
As the newspaper уточняет, “US intelligence determined that Ukraine sought to strike a military target located in the same region as Putin’s residence, but not in its vicinity,” one official said. According to the WSJ, CIA director John Ratcliffe conveyed these findings to Trump. After that, the US president reposted a piece by the New York Post claiming that “Russia is the one standing in the way of peace.”
Neither the CIA nor the White House has officially confirmed the conclusions reported by the newspaper.
The day before, The New York Times reported that, unlike the Department of Defense under Pete Hegseth—which has been skeptical about supporting Ukraine—the CIA has been engaging with Kyiv far more actively. In particular, according to the newspaper, the agency has been involved in coordinating Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries, sharing intelligence on vulnerable elements of infrastructure to be targeted.
“While Mr Hegseth sidelined generals who supported Ukraine, CIA director Mr Ratcliffe consistently defended the efforts of the agency’s own staff aimed at assisting Ukraine. He kept the agency’s presence in the country at its highest level; funding for its programmes there even increased,” The New York Times wrote.
The newspaper says that Ratcliffe gradually guided Trump toward the conclusion that continued support for Ukraine—and its strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure—was justified. “When the campaign (of Ukrainian strikes on refineries) began to deliver results, Mr Ratcliffe discussed it with Mr Trump. The president appeared to listen. They often played golf together on Sundays,” the paper noted.