WASHINGTON DC -- CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Moscow overnight Monday to meet with Russian officials, a US official familiar with his travel told CNN.

The official declined to share the substance of the meetings or the topics discussed. The CIA declined to comment.

The US asked Ukraine to halt drone and missile strikes in Moscow and other cities in the north of Russia ahead of Ratcliffe’s trip, a person familiar with the matter said. The request was for Monday through Wednesday of this week. The Ukrainians were told a senior US official would be traveling in Russia.

The visit is Ratcliffe’s first known trip to Russia as CIA director under President Donald Trump. It comes as negotiations to end the war between Russia and Ukraine have stalled.

Trump said on Wednesday that the visit was “semi-routine” and not intended to warn Russian President Vladimir Putin against an attack on NATO territory.

“He’s there, you know, very sort of semi-routine,” Trump told Glenn Beck in a phone interview on his radio program. “I hate to disappoint people. We would like to see the war with Ukraine end.”

Beck had asked Trump whether Ratcliffe was visiting Moscow to raise concerns about Russian designs on NATO territory. Recent US and European intelligence assessments have warned Putin could order a limited incursion to test the alliance’s resolve.

But Trump said that wasn’t the intent of the visit, nor was it meant to ask for Russia’s help in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

“John Ratcliffe is a fantastic guy. He’s the head of the CIA, and he is not in there for any of the things that you said,” Trump said. “Now something may come out, you know, out of it. We’re working very hard to get that (Ukraine) war ended, and frankly, they both want to see it ended at this point.”

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the CIA director did not meet with Putin during the trip.

He said Ratcliffe’s contact with Russia was “more or less at the level of the special services.”

Peskov added that while this was “positive,” it was premature to speculate “whether this will have an effect overall on the process of pulling our bilateral relations out of the deepest crisis they are currently in.”

Ratcliffe’s visit came one day after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced “Operation Economic Outcast” — a strategy designed to isolate Iran from the rest of the world by punishing countries and entities that continue to do business with Tehran. Russia is a strategic trading partner with Iran.

Early Tuesday morning, a military transport aircraft — an American Boeing C-17 Globemaster III — landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24. It appeared the flight had initially taken off from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

A spokesperson for Latvia’s Defense Ministry said the flight — which left from Riga, the Latvian capital — was “properly coordinated and authorized for operation within the airspace.”

“Since the aircraft is not operated by the National Armed Forces of Latvia, we are unable to provide any further information concerning this particular flight,” the spokesperson told CNN.

CBS News was first to report on Ratcliffe’s presence in Russia.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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