CIA Director's Secret Visit; He knew everything, but...

CIA Director's Secret Visit; He knew everything, but...

The Washington Post reports, citing a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity, that US intelligence agencies discovered in mid-June that Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning some sort of armed attack, but that information was not discussed in meetings with Ukrainian officials, President Volodymyr Zelensky and others.

During the visit, according to the official, Barnes met with Zelensky and senior Ukrainian intelligence officials, who revealed to the CIA director their strategy to return territories occupied by Russia in preparation to force that country into truce negotiations till year end.

In this context, Ivan Us, a senior researcher at the Ukrainian National Institute for Strategic Studies, said in a guest appearance on the Al Jazeera Arabic program that the US had previously informed Britain of the information they had regarding the preparations of the Wagner group to carry out an armed rebellion in Russia, but that they did not pass that information on to Ukraine.

As the reason for this, he stated that there are no close relations with Ukraine and that Washington acts in accordance with its own calculations and political interests. On the other hand, Professor of political science and international relations, Khalil al-Anani, explained that Washington did not convey information about the Wagner rebellion to Kyiv because the information obtained by America did not reach the level of the rebellion, but there was news of unrest and discord in the Russian leadership. He believes that America did not disclose this information in order not to appear to be involved against Russia in those events. Al-Anani also believes that the surprise factor in launching the rebellion played a large role in Washington's failure to warn Kyiv, as there was not enough time to verify and share the information it received.

On the other hand, the CIA declined to comment on Barnes's assessment of the upcoming Ukrainian offensive, despite military planners in Kyiv assuring Barnes that they were optimistic they would achieve their goal and retake large areas by the fall, as they would begin to move missile systems closer to the border of Crimea, which is controlled by Russia, Al Jazeera Balkan reported.