US diplomacy accelerates amid cautious signals from Moscow and Kyiv over Ukraine conflict

The covert trip by CIA director John Ratcliffe to Moscow in late August has already been overtaken by a wider, still inconclusive American push to reopen diplomacy over Ukraine. On 5 September, Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner spent more than three hours with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, and the following day they travelled on to Kyiv, where Volodymyr Zelensky said Washington was exploring limited steps to stop the war worsening over the winter. But the Kr...

emlin also repeated that its central demands remained “unshakeable”, a sign that fresh contact has not yet translated into any softening from Moscow. Reuters reported the Moscow talks as “highly useful” but without any breakthrough, while Axios said Zelensky was told the Russians were at least “ready to negotiate”. (investing.com)

Ratcliffe’s own visit remains unusually opaque. CBS News and The Washington Post said he was in Moscow on Tuesday 26 August, while Al Jazeera’s Reuters report referred to Tuesday 25 August. The Washington Post said flight-tracking data showed a C-17A travelling from Joint Base Andrews via Riga and leaving Moscow about eight and a half hours later. The Kremlin acknowledged contacts with US intelligence officials, said Ratcliffe did not meet Putin, and, according to Al Jazeera’s Reuters report, said the Russian president was briefed afterwards. (cbsnews.com)

The purpose of the mission is disputed. CBS said Ratcliffe warned Russian officials not to attack NATO member states and also raised Iran, telling Moscow there could be additional sanctions if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened to shipping. Reuters later reported that two sources said Ratcliffe did bring up the possibility of Russian action against a NATO member, though it was unclear whether that was the only reason for the trip. Trump, however, publicly played down the episode. According to The Moscow Times, he said “Something may come out of it” because his administration was trying to end the war, but dismissed speculation over NATO or Iran with “None of the above” and called the journey “sort of semi-routine”. Reuters also quoted him saying Putin would not attack NATO territory, while Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR, described his meeting with Ratcliffe as a “working-level meeting” and “nothing unusual”. (cbsnews.com)

That clash of narratives reflects the unease spreading across Europe. Reuters quoted a NATO official on 30 August as saying Russia was stepping up hybrid acts in Europe, even if the alliance saw no imminent threat of attack. The same Reuters report said Polish prime minister Donald Tusk believed a Russian provocation against a NATO member could not be ruled out. Axios reported that Russian drones entering Romanian and Polish airspace had recently been shot down, and that Moscow had also threatened British military targets over UK support for Ukrainian long-range strikes. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, by contrast, dismissed the reports around Ratcliffe’s trip as “scare stories”. (marketscreener.com)

At home, meanwhile, the war is becoming harder for the Kremlin to keep at a distance from ordinary Russians. AP reported that summer strikes by Ukraine on refineries, ports and major warehouse sites helped to trigger petrol queues, disrupted air travel and a stream of images of burning industrial facilities from St Petersburg to Siberia. Denis Volkov of the Levada Centre told AP the attacks had become the most notable topic of the summer, and the agency said Putin’s approval rating had fallen to 76% in August from 87% in September 2025. A separate Levada update said 57% of respondents in August were following events around Ukraine closely. The Economist’s account of elite thinking, summarised by Meduza, went further, saying people close to Putin believed ending the war without at least taking all of Donbas could endanger him personally; one insider said he had told associates: “They will hang me.” (apnews.com)

Putin himself has been explicit about the logic of retaliation. Reuters reported that on 22 August he told a state television journalist that Kyiv had opened “Pandora’s box” by attacking Russian economic targets such as oil refineries and warehouse hubs, and warned that Russia would answer by hitting Ukraine’s “most sensitive economic sectors”. In the same remarks he said global food markets would not face shortages because Russia could replace Ukrainian exports, even as Russian strikes were hitting Ukraine’s Black Sea grain routes. He also restated that Moscow would discuss peace only on the basis of “realities on the ground”, not what he called “exotic” proposals. (marketscreener.com)

That helps explain why the newest US diplomacy appears focused less on a grand settlement than on preventing an even more destructive winter. Reuters reported on 4 September that Washington was seeking assurances that Ukraine would not strike Moscow and Russia would not hit Kyiv while Witkoff and Kushner were travelling. Axios said the two men pressed in Kyiv for progress before winter, and Zelensky told the outlet on Monday 7 September that the discussions had touched on energy facilities, grain shipments, electricity infrastructure and oil and gas exports. His verdict was cautious: the Russians, he said, seemed prepared to discuss ideas for moving negotiations forward, but their military actions still did not show a readiness to compromise. (marketscreener.com)

Source: Noah Wire Services