NEW YORK, July 5. /TASS/. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is playing an active part in the Ukraine conflict as a primary negotiator, Newsweek reported on Wednesday, citing senior US intelligence officers.

"There is a clandestine war, with clandestine rules <…> going on in Ukraine, necessitating that the CIA play an outsize role: as primary spy, as negotiator, as supplier of intelligence," the US news magazine quoted a senior official in the Biden administration as saying. "Is the CIA on the ground inside Ukraine?" the official asked rhetorically. "Yes."

The CIA is "being very active in the war while not contradicting the Biden administration's central pledge" which is that the US military do not take part in the conflict directly, another senior intelligence official said. "Don't underestimate the Biden administration's priority to keep Americans out of harm's way and reassure Russia that it doesn't need to escalate," he told the magazine.

The Washington Post reported on June 30 that CIA Director William Burns discussed Kiev’s plans to retake its territory and hold negotiations with Moscow before the end of this year during a secret visit to Ukraine. Burns also met with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and Ukraine’s top intelligence officials. The purpose behind his trip’s was to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to sharing intelligence, the newspaper explained.