CIA Director Travels to Moscow for Unannounced Talks

The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has travelled to Moscow for unannounced talks, the BBC's US news partner CBS has reported.

John Ratcliffe reportedly arrived in the Russian capital earlier on Tuesday. Neither Washington or Moscow have confirmed the nature of the visit or who he was due to meet.

In-person talks between high-level American and Russian officials are rare.

Flight tracking data confirmed a large US military aircraft travelled to Russia from the US via Latvia on Tuesday. It departed later on Tuesday.

BBC News has contacted the CIA, the White House and Pentagon for comment.

Footage posted on social media showed the C-17 transport plane approaching Moscow's Vnukovo international airport.

It departed Riga airport at 05:50 GMT and appeared to have landed in the Russian capital at around 07:04 GMT, according to data from FlightRadar24. It returned to Riga shortly before 17:00 GMT.

Footage on social media also purported to show a diplomatic motorcade travelling through Moscow.

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.