CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a rare, unannounced trip to Moscow aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport aircraft, marking the highest-level visit to Russia by a Trump administration official since January and the first known trip by an American CIA director to the Russian capital since before Russia invaded Ukraine.

The visit was initially exposed by flight-tracking data showing a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III flying from Riga, Latvia, into Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. The aircraft, tail number 07-7181, had traveled from the Washington area to Latvia before continuing into Russia. A U.S. diplomatic motorcade was subsequently spotted near the airport and later in central Moscow.

CBS News and Axios later confirmed that Ratcliffe was in Moscow for meetings with Russian officials. The CIA has refused to disclose who he met or what was discussed, while the Kremlin publicly claimed it had no information about the aircraft and said no meetings with U.S. administration officials had been scheduled at the Kremlin. That leaves open the possibility that Ratcliffe’s contacts were with Russian intelligence or security officials outside the Kremlin itself.

One of the most striking details emerged before Ratcliffe arrived: U.S. officials informed Ukraine that a senior American delegation was heading to Moscow and asked Kyiv to suspend strikes on Russian cities until the delegation departed. The Jerusalem Post separately reported that the request covered Moscow and other Russian cities over several days.

The request comes as Ukraine has increasingly demonstrated its ability to strike deep inside Russia, including around Moscow, using long-range drones. Washington’s decision to seek a temporary pause appears to have been designed to prevent a Ukrainian attack from disrupting or endangering the high-level U.S. mission while it was inside Russia. The C-17 later departed Moscow and headed back toward Riga.

Ratcliffe’s trip is particularly unusual because CIA chiefs rarely make publicly detectable visits to hostile capitals. His predecessor, William Burns, traveled to Moscow in November 2021 and spoke with President Vladimir Putin and senior Russian officials in an attempt to warn Moscow against attacking Ukraine. Russia launched its full-scale invasion roughly three months later.

Ratcliffe has nevertheless maintained contact with Russian intelligence officials. The CIA has also played a role in U.S.-Russia prisoner negotiations, including the release of American detainees, giving intelligence channels an unusually important role as traditional diplomatic relations between Washington and Moscow remain severely constrained.

The timing adds another layer of intrigue. U.S.-backed efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war have largely stalled, while Washington is simultaneously intensifying pressure on Iran. Russia maintains extensive military, economic and intelligence ties with Tehran, including cooperation involving Iranian-designed drones. Reuters has also reported a Ukrainian intelligence assessment alleging that Russia supplied Iran with satellite imagery that could assist in targeting U.S. facilities in the Middle East, an accusation Moscow denies.

There is currently no verified indication that Iran was on Ratcliffe’s agenda, and neither Washington nor Moscow has disclosed the purpose of the talks.

For now, the unusual military flight, the diplomatic motorcade, the request that Ukraine temporarily stop striking Russian cities and the presence of America’s top intelligence official in Moscow point to a significant channel of communication operating largely outside public view.