Джон Рэтклифф. Фото: @CIADirector
CIA Director John Ratcliffe proposed holding a meeting between U.S., Russian and Ukrainian presidents Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a secret visit to Moscow. Axios reported this, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Ratcliffe visited Moscow on August 25 and met with Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergey Naryshkin and FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov. According to the publication, one of the purposes of the trip was to determine whether the heads of Russia’s security services could persuade Putin to resume talks with Ukraine mediated by the United States.
Ratcliffe also discussed the possibility of holding a three-way summit. The U.S. administration had previously proposed such a meeting: Zelenskyy supported the initiative, but Putin rejected it. On Friday, U.S. officials briefed the Ukrainian president on the results of the Moscow talks.
Trump called the CIA director’s trip “normal working practice” and said it was not related to warning Russia against attacking NATO territory.
The New York Times previously reported that Ratcliffe gave Bortnikov a “bleak assessment” of the situation on the front and urged Russia to reach an agreement before its position deteriorated. Axios sources said that after the meeting, the CIA director viewed Bortnikov as a constructive participant who could help restart the diplomatic process.
The CIA declined to comment on the trip.
Ukrainian authorities, meanwhile, remain skeptical about Putin’s intentions. Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Pavlo Palisa said that, according to intelligence, the Russian president had instructed the military to prepare several scenarios for an offensive in northern Ukraine. He named Kyiv and Chernihiv among the key directions.
Talks between Russia and Ukraine mediated by the Trump administration were suspended in mid-February after the war with Iran began. White House representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have held separate meetings with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in recent months, but no significant progress has been achieved.
Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov said that U.S.-mediated talks could resume in September. Zelenskyy on Friday thanked Washington for the “necessary tone of the conversation with Russia” and said the U.S. administration was promoting a realistic vision of the next steps.