Reuters reported the meeting, citing two unnamed people familiar with the conversation. One source said Zelensky and Ratcliffe spoke while their aircraft were at the airport for refueling. The second source specified that the meeting took place on September 21.
Both sources declined to describe the details of the conversation. Neither the CIA nor the Ukrainian president's office officially announced the meeting.
Zelensky was traveling to New York for the UN General Assembly session, where he is scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump on September 22. Ratcliffe was reportedly returning from Egypt.
The meeting with the Ukrainian leader came less than a month after the CIA director's undisclosed visit to Moscow. The trip became known on August 25 from The Wall Street Journal: according to the newspaper, Trump personally instructed Ratcliffe to travel to the Russian capital without informing his aides and military commanders about the mission.
WSJ sources claimed that in Moscow Ratcliffe discussed resuming negotiations with Ukraine on ending the war and urged the Kremlin to stop supporting Iran. The CIA director had no direct contacts with Vladimir Putin — the Kremlin stated this. The US president called the trip itself "half routine."
The Financial Times called Ratcliffe the new key US negotiator on the war in Ukraine; the White House denied this. Last week the Kremlin said negotiations on a peaceful settlement involving the US, Russia and Ukraine could resume in October.
Before leaving for New York, Zelensky again stated Ukraine's readiness for de-escalation. In response to Trump's post on social network X, he wrote that Ukraine's energy sector and critical infrastructure, as well as food exports, must not be targets for Russia — and this would entail mirror steps toward de-escalation from the Ukrainian side. In his post, Trump expressed regret that Russia had "lost control of its diesel fuel industry" as a result of Ukrainian attacks.
Radio Liberty has no confirmation of the meeting or its possible details.