Poland’s minister overseeing the country’s special services, Tomasz Siemoniak, has held talks with CIA Director John Ratcliffe as fears mount over Russia’s threat to NATO and the US renews diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Siemoniak confirmed the meeting at the agency’s headquarters near Washington on Tuesday, saying in a post on X that he held a “very important conversation” with Ratcliffe.
He added he briefed Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk on the most important information “concerning Poland’s security that emerged from the meeting.”
“The Polish-American alliance is strong and unwavering,” Siemoniak said.
“Close cooperation between our intelligence services is one of its foundations,” he added, thanking Ratcliffe for his “friendship” and for his support and trust in Poland.
The meeting comes amid renewed US diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine and concerns over the potential for the conflict to escalate beyond Ukraine’s borders.
On August 25, Ratcliffe travelled to Moscow, where he met with Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
The details of the talks were not made publicly known. However, Ratcliffe’s surprise visit in Moscow came amid warnings from US intelligence officials that Russia could be looking to test NATO with hybrid warfare operations against the Baltic States and Poland, including infrastructure sabotage or false-flag attacks, according to Bloomberg.
Last weekend, US presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday before holding talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv the following day.
The meetings, however, did not produce an immediate breakthrough.