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Translated by: Flutura Gashi-Mehmeti
- August 31, 2026 11:33
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CIA Director John Ratcliffe proposed a trilateral meeting between US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his secret visit to Moscow last week in an effort to end the war, two sources familiar with the matter told Axios.
This was the first time Ratcliffe was personally involved in diplomatic efforts to achieve progress in resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Ratcliffe's visit to Moscow was aimed in part at determining whether Russian intelligence chiefs could help persuade Putin to return to resuming U.S.-brokered negotiations with Ukraine, the sources said.
On Friday, US officials briefed Zelensky on Ratcliffe's talks in Moscow and the proposal for a trilateral summit.
The Trump administration has previously floated the idea of such a meeting. Zelensky agreed, but Putin rejected it.
Ratcliffe made a secret visit to Moscow on Tuesday and met with his Russian counterparts: the head of the SVR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, and the director of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov.
Trump told Axios that Ratcliffe's visit was "standard business" and that it was not intended to warn Russia against attacks on NATO territory.
Meanwhile, US officials have told Zelensky that Ratcliffe had also raised the possibility of resuming peace talks in Moscow, the sources said.
The New York Times reported that Ratcliffe had given Bortnikov “a grim assessment” of the state of the war and urged Russia to reach an agreement before its situation worsened.
Sources told Axios that Ratcliffe had concluded that Bortnikov is a constructive actor who could help restart diplomatic efforts.
And Ukrainian officials are highly skeptical of Putin's intentions and say they have intelligence that suggests Putin is planning a major escalation of the war.
Zelensky's deputy chief of staff, Pavlo Palisa, told reporters on Friday that Putin had ordered his military to prepare several operational scenarios for an offensive in northern Ukraine, with Kiev and Chernihiv identified as key areas.
Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, brokered by the Trump administration, were suspended in mid-February after the war with Iran began.
White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have held separate talks with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in recent months, but little progress has been made.
Zelensky's chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, told local media on Thursday that US-brokered talks with Russia could resume in September.