Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin on Wednesday said that he and CIA counterpart William Burns had discussed “what to do with Ukraine” in a phone call late last month, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

Earlier, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal had reported on June 30 that Burns had called Naryshkin to assure the Kremlin that the United States had no role in a brief mutiny a week earlier by Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner fighters.

Naryshkin confirmed that Burns had raised “the events of June 24”, when the mercenaries took control of a southern Russian city and advanced towards Moscow before reaching a deal with the Kremlin to end the revolt. However, he said that for most of the call, “we considered and discussed what to do with Ukraine”.

“It’s natural that negotiations will be possible sooner or later, because any conflict, including armed conflict, ends by negotiations, but the conditions for these still need to ripen,” the Russian spy chief was quoted as saying by TASS. However, the agency did not specify whether this was part of his conversation with Burns.