CIA Director William Burns and Richard Moore, the head of the UK’s MI6 foreign intelligence agency, spoke at an unprecedented joint public event in London on Saturday, where they praised Ukraine’s invasion of Russia’s Kursk Oblast.
Moore said the Kursk invasion was “typically audacious and bold on the part of the Ukrainians, to try and change the game” and said it had “brought the war home to ordinary Russians.”
Burns said the operation in Kursk was a “significant tactical achievement” that boosted morale in Ukraine. While the fighting continues in Kursk, Russian forces have been making more rapid gains in Ukraine’s Donbas region since the invasion was launched.
The US and its allies claim they weren’t involved in the planning of the Kursk invasion, but a Ukrainian soldier said Western intelligence was crucial for the attack. Ukrainian forces have been using US and British weapons in the assault, marking a significant escalation of the proxy war.
At the event, which was hosted by the Financial Times, Burns downplayed concerns about potential Russian escalations in response to the Western support for Ukraine.
“I think there was a moment in the fall of 2022 when there was a genuine risk of the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons. I have never thought, however, and this is the view of my agency, that we should be unnecessarily intimidated by that. Putin’s a bully and he is going to continue to saber-rattle from time to time,” Burns said.
The event marked the first time the heads of the CIA and MI6 had appeared in public together. Both spy agencies have been deeply involved with Ukraine’s intelligence agencies following the 2014 coup in Kyiv that ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
