The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) met figures from Russia’s intelligence services during his unannounced visit to Moscow on Tuesday, the Kremlin has confirmed.

John Ratcliffe travelled to the Russian capital on Tuesday but neither side has shed any light on what prompted the unconventional meeting or what was discussed.

It is rare for American senior intelligence leaders to travel to Russia, with the last comparable meeting taking place in the months leading up to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ratcliffe arrived in Moscow on board a military plane which left later the same day.

The Kremlin ruled out speculation the CIA head met Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There were contacts with the intelligence services,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“There were no meetings with the president of Russia. That’s all I can say on the subject. Naturally, President Putin is briefed immediately about everything,” he added.

Peskov made the comments in response to a question at his daily press briefing from a reporter at the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, who asked if Vladimir Putin was informed about the CIA chief meetings and “at what level” they were held.

Putin’s spokesman was also asked by the BBC’s Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg what was the topic of the CIA talks.

“I have nothing to add to what I’ve already said on the subject,” Peskov replied.

It was too early to say what impact this meeting would have over repairing bilateral US-Russian relations, he said, telling reporters: “How much this will impact the overall process of recovering our bilateral relations from the profound crisis they’re currently in, it is premature to say.”

But contacts between intelligence agencies are “a positive phenomenon, a positive process,” Peskov added, saying they often continue “even during the most difficult moments” in relations between the two countries.

Ahead of the trip, the US told Ukraine that a senior delegation would be travelling to Moscow and asked Kyiv to suspend strikes until they had left, a senior Ukrainian official told CBS.

There has been no official comment on Ratcliffe’s visitfrom the CIA, White House or Pentagon.

Ratcliffe appears to be one of the highest-ranking US officials to visit Russia during President Donald Trump’s second term.

The last time a CIA director visited Moscow was in November 2021, when William Burns warned Russia against sending troops into Ukraine. Weeks later, the Kremlin launched its full-scale war on Ukraine.

Since then, the US has had strained relations with Russia, which has been isolated on the world stage and faced international economic sanctions.

Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska last year but the meeting did not lead to a breakthrough. Subsequent US-led peace talks between Russia and Ukraine appear to have stalled.

John Foreman, who served as a British military attaché to Moscow between 2019 and 2022, told Radio 4’s PM programme: “The Americans don’t normally send such a high ranking official to Moscow unannounced at short notice unless something is up.”