Secret CIA chief’s Moscow visit revives prospect of Putin-Trump-Zelenskyy summit

The Kremlin has placed a condition on any meeting between Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy: the peace deal would need to be settled first.

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These agreements are by no means a simple transaction. This is a very complex settlement process involving many details. And, of course, there is absolutely no need for the presidents to meet to put all this into practice.

Dmitry Peskov responded to reports from Axios that CIA Director John Ratcliffe had proposed a trilateral summit during a recent visit to Moscow. The idea was that a meeting between the three leaders could help revive negotiations over Ukraine. Moscow rejected that sequence, saying the presidents should not meet simply to negotiate unresolved details.

“These agreements are by no means a simple transaction. This is a very complex settlement process involving many details. And, of course, there is absolutely no need for the presidents to meet to put all this into practice,” Peskov said. He also claimed that Ukraine was not seeking a concrete resolution to the conflict.

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semi-routine

The reported visit has produced sharply different signals from Moscow and Kyiv. Ukraine’s presidential office chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said US-mediated negotiations could resume as early as September. The Kremlin said peace talks were in a “deep standstill,” while reports citing people close to the Russian authorities said Moscow was preparing to intensify attacks because the negotiations had stalled.

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deep standstill

Trump confirmed Ratcliffe’s visit and called it “semi-routine,” while expressing hope that it could help end the war. Zelenskyy has described the period from late 2026 to summer 2027 as the most realistic window for a diplomatic settlement, while acknowledging major differences over the future of Donbas. Earlier three-country talks in Geneva made little progress on a ceasefire, territory and security guarantees.

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most realistic window