In June, CIA Director William Burns secretly visited Ukraine. During this visit, the Ukrainian authorities presented to Burns a Ukrainian plan to return the territories occupied by russia and to begin negotiations on a ceasefire by the end of 2023.
Source. The Washington Post citing its sources.
According to the plan, by the autumn, Ukraine plans to return most of the territories in the south of the country, as well as to make significant progress in the east. After that, the Ukrainian Armed Forces will install missile systems and artillery near the border with Crimea, off the coast of which the russian Black Sea Fleet is located.
The publication quotes a high-ranking Ukrainian official as saying that russia understands only the language of force and will be ready for a real negotiation process only if it feels threatened.
It is emphasized that in exchange for abandoning the forceful way of returning Crimea, Ukraine will demand that russia recognize the security guarantees it hopes to receive from its Western partners.
The article notes that the conversation between Burns and the Ukrainian leadership took place after the start of the Ukrainian Armed Forces counteroffensive, but before a significant number of Ukrainian military brigades that had been trained in Western countries had entered the battle.
It is noted that this is not the first such secret visit of the CIA Director to Ukraine since the beginning of the war.
Earlier, in an interview with the Washington Post, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said he was "annoyed" by Western officials' talk of the counteroffensive developing more slowly than expected. He noted that the Ukrainian military is advancing every day, although every meter is gained at the cost of considerable blood.
Zaluzhnyi also emphasized the need for Ukraine to receive F-16 fighter jets as soon as possible, as the russian air force was superior to the Ukrainian one both technically and in numbers.