Russian spy chief Sergei Naryshkin has said that he had spoken to the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Ratcliffe, and that they had agreed to call each other at any time.
The CIA and Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the successor to the KGB's famed First Chief Directorate, have long been intense rivals, and each service resorted to public campaigns to recruit agents in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
"I had a phone call with my American counterpart, and we reserved for each other the possibility to call each other at any time and discuss issues of interest to us," Naryshkin said.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian F-16 fighter pilot was killed while repelling a Russian attack that involved hundreds of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles, authorities have said.
Ukraine lost its third F-16 fighter jet since the start of the war while repelling the attack, the military said.
Kiev has not revealed how many of the jets it operates, but they have become a central and heavily used part of Ukraine's air defences.
Russia also claimed its troops have captured the village of Novoukraiinka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, according to state news agency RIA Novosti, which cited the defence ministry.
