Spy chiefs had been worried by troop movement near Ukraine’s border for some months – and their warnings proved accurate
It was in early November that US president Joe Biden took the rare step to dispatch CIA director Bill Burns to Moscow. The spy chief’s message – in part – was to warn his Kremlin counterparts that the West was concerned about unusual troop movements it was seeing near Ukraine’s border.
British officials were anxious, too. “We keep on coming back to crises over Ukraine,” one said later that month. “President Biden does not send Bill Burns to Moscow unless he is very worried about something. And so, you know, without being able to go into the full details, there is enough substance to this to make us concerned.”
