According to a report by the Washington Post, CIA Director William Burns discussed with senior Ukrainian officials the prospect of retaking territories annexed by Russia and initiating peace talks by the end of the year, during a secret trip to Ukraine back in June (before the Wagner mutiny in Russia). 

Burns had reportedly met with President Volodymyr Zelensky and senior intelligence officials during his visit; The purpose of the visit was to reaffirm Washington's commitment to supporting Ukraine through sharing intelligence. 

Burns was informed that the Ukrainians planned to initiate peace talks with Moscow after moving artillery and missile systems toward the border with Crimea which would allow them to push into the Donbass and give them a strong position in the peace talks. 

The report adds, that Ukrainian officials hope that Russia would accept whatever security guarantees Kiev can secure from the West in exchange for Kiev agreeing not to take Crimea. 

One Ukrainian official told the Washington Post outlet that "the US agrees that Ukraine should enter the negotiations from a strong position."

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Earlier this week, the Russian Ministry of Defense published a video showing a Russian T-80 tank destroying an American-made Bradley fighting vehicle operated by Ukrainian forces.

The ministry confirmed that "artillery units succeeded in destroying targets at long distances outside the range of direct vision, using coordinates obtained through the use of drones," noting that the distance of fire was around 9.5km along the Kupyansk front in the Kharkov region.

Russian forces also destroyed observation posts, warehouses, and foreign military equipment, as per the statement.

Sputnik quoted a member of the Russian combat tank units as saying that the Ukrainian targets were "widely varied, including bunkers, trenches, communication systems, and equipment."

In the Donetsk Region, the head of the Russian Battlegroup South press, Vadim Astafyev, told the agency that "the group's artillery destroyed the strongholds of two brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the regions of Kalinovka and Avdeevka."

Three 120-mm mortars were destroyed on the Mariinsky axis, and units operating the Solntsepyok heavy flamethrower systems targeted Ukrainian forces gathered at the outposts of Malaya town in Kalinovka, according to Astafyev.

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