CIA director meets with Zelensky at airport in Ireland

CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at an airport in Ireland on Monday as the two waited for their planes to be refueled en route to the U.S., a person familiar with the meeting told The Hill.

Ratcliffe and Zelensky briefly met at Shannon Airport, said the source, who declined to elaborate on what the two officials discussed.

Ratcliffe was on his way back to the U.S. after meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Sunday, where the two discussed a variety of topics , including the Iran war, intelligence cooperation, the Gaza ceasefire, the Sudanese civil war, Somalia and more.

Zelensky was flying to New York City, where he is set to partake in meetings with world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly .

The Ratcliffe-Zelensky meeting, which was reported earlier by Reuters, comes after the CIA director flew to Russia last month for an unannounced meeting with the Kremlin’s intelligence officials.

While President Trump described the Aug. 25 huddle with Russian officials as “semi-routine,” Ratcliffe reportedly warned Russia against potentially attacking NATO countries.

One European official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive meetings, previously told The Hill that the U.S. briefed allies regarding the meeting in Moscow and was focused, in part, on Ukraine.