CIA Director William Burns decries Russia's "horrific" crimes in Ukraine, calls out China as "silent partner in Putin's aggression"

CIA Director William Burns on Thursday decried "horrific" crimes committed by Russian forces in Bucha and throughout Ukraine, warning that subsequent phases of the war, soon to enter its eighth week, would involve continued bloodshed.  

"The last chapter in Putin's war has yet to be written, as he grinds away in Ukraine," Burns said in prepared public remarks to mark his first year in office. "I have no doubt about the cruel pain and damage that Putin can continue to inflict on Ukraine, or the raw brutality with which Russian force is being applied." 

Speaking to students and faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Burns called China, led by President Xi Jinping, "a silent partner in Putin's aggression" and said it posed the "greatest challenge" confronting the U.S.  and "the most profound test that CIA has ever faced."