CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow to meet with Russian intelligence officials, the Kremlin reportedly said Wednesday, after video emerged of a U.S. military transport plane coming in for a landing Tuesday at Vnukovo airport.

President Donald Trump, when asked this morning about Ratcliffe’s visit on "The Glenn Beck Program," said, "He’s there on, you know, very sort of semi-routine."

"We would like to see the war with Ukraine end," Trump added, before saying, "Now something may come out of it.

"We're working very hard to get that war ended and frankly they both want to see it ended at this point."

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House, the CIA and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for further comment.

US MILITARY PLANE LANDS IN MOSCOW, WITH KREMLIN CLAIMING IT HAS NO INFORMATION: REPORT

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, according to Reuters, "All I can ⁠tell you is that there have been contacts via the security services. I can tell you that there have been no meetings with the Russian president."

The news agency cited the Kremlin as saying Ratcliffe met with Russian intelligence officials.

"Naturally, President Putin is kept informed of everything without delay," Peskov also was quoted as saying.

The last CIA director to visit Moscow was William Burns in November 2021, three months before Russia’s war against Ukraine started, Reuters reported.

A senior Ukrainian official told The Associated Press that Washington informed Kyiv a delegation would be traveling to the Russian capital and asked it to suspend strikes until it left.

PUTIN 'PANICKED' AS DEFIANT UKRAINE MARKS INDEPENDENCE DAY UNDER RUSSIAN BOMBARDMENT

The official said the request did not apply to all Russian territory, but specifically to Moscow, St. Petersburg and some northern regions. Strikes on other parts of Russia continued, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk publicly.

Video captured a U.S. military transport plane coming in for a landing Tuesday at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, in a flight that the Kremlin initially claimed it had no information about.

Data from the website Flightradar24 showed that the Boeing C-17A Globemaster III left Joint Base Andrews in Maryland early Sunday afternoon on a flight to Riga, Latvia. The aircraft then traveled from Riga to Moscow on Tuesday morning.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The last time a U.S.-registered jet made a direct flight to Russia from Europe was in January when special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, visited Moscow for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, according to Reuters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

World·New

U.S. CIA Director John Ratcliffe spoke with Russian intelligence officials during a visit to Moscow but did not meet President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Wednesday ‌of a trip that U.S. President Donald Trump described as "semi-routine."

Trump says John Ratcliffe's visit to Russia was 'semi-routine,' but could prove useful

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe flew to Russia on a C-17 aircraft on an undisclosed mission, Radio Liberty reported on August 25, citing Saratoga Foundation President and Russia strategist Glenn Howard.

According to public flight-tracking data, Ratcliffe flew to Moscow via Latvia aboard a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft.

The flight-tracking data has raised questions about why the head of American intelligence is making a rare personal trip to Russia at such a sensitive time, the publication noted.

Howard told the publication that the nature of the trip highlights the high stakes involved.

“CIA directors do not go to Moscow unless they have something to ask for,” Howard said. “That is why a CIA director does not board a C-17 and fly halfway around the world to Russia unless the matter is urgent.”

Howard noted that then-CIA Director William Burns traveled to Moscow in November 2021. During that visit, Burns warned Russian officials against launching an attack on Ukraine.

“Burns went there in November 2021 before the invasion to warn them not to invade Ukraine,” Howard noted.

Bradley Bowman, a former national security adviser to the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees and current senior director of the Center for Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, hopes Ratcliffe is sending a direct message to the Kremlin.

“I hope that at the top of his list is a direct demand for Vladimir Putin to stop his overt aggression against Ukraine,” Bowman told RFE/RL.

Bowman added that Washington must make it clear that if the war does not stop, Russia will face increasingly painful measures, and the United States and its allies will continue to help Ukraine defend itself.

Bowman also noted that Russia's support for Iran is likely on the agenda.

“I also hope he makes it clear that Vladimir Putin needs to stop helping Iran launch satellites,” Bowman said.

Bowman believes Ratcliffe may be trying to persuade Moscow to stop supplying weapons and other aid to Iran, turning the visit into a direct warning to the Kremlin.

“If we are to speculate, Ratcliffe's visit could be an ultimatum,” Howard said.

Bowman cited reports that Russia has provided Iran with targeting data, along with drone tactics and techniques developed during the war in Ukraine.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe secretly arrived in Moscow on August 25.

Reuters, citing Flightradar24, reported that a U.S. military transport aircraft, a Boeing C-17A Globemaster III with tail number 07-7181, landed at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport that same day, arriving from Riga at around 10:00 a.m. Kyiv time. The aircraft had reached Riga on August 23 after departing Joint Base Andrews near Washington, D.C., before leaving Moscow a few hours later.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News