The visit to Moscow is the latest instance in which Trump has turned to his CIA director to help navigate tense diplomatic negotiations with a major U.S. adversary. Ratcliffe also traveled secretly to Cuba this May to warn the country’s communist regime to make fundamental reforms or risk a U.S. pressure campaign.

Russia bombarded cities across Ukraine with missiles and drones in an overnight onslaught that ran into the daylight hours of Thursday, when explosions echoed around Kyiv through the morning. Ukraine is desperately short of U.