TRUMP-PUTIN-ZELENSKYY MEETING FLOATED BY CIA CHIEF DURING MOSCOW VISIT AS DRONE WAR HEATS UP

Sun 30 August 2026:

CIA Director John Ratcliffe proposed a meeting between US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a covert visit to Moscow earlier this week, Axios reported Saturday.

The visit was also aimed at assessing whether Russia’s intelligence chiefs could help persuade Putin to move toward resuming US-mediated negotiations with Ukraine, sources told Axios.

US officials briefed Zelenskyy on Friday about Ratcliffe’s talks in Moscow and the proposal for the summit.

The Trump administration has previously raised the possibility of a meeting. Zelenskyy has expressed support for the idea, while Putin has rejected it.

Trump told Axios that Ratcliffe’s visit was “standard business” and was not intended to warn Russia against a potential attack on NATO territory.

The New York Times reported that Ratcliffe gave Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), “a bleak assessment” of the war and urged Russia to reach a deal before its position worsens.

Sources told Axios that Ratcliffe viewed Bortnikov as a constructive figure who could help revive diplomatic efforts.

Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, said Thursday that US-mediated talks with Russia could resume in September, according to media reports.

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Drone war heats up

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on his military to increase its long-range drone strikes against Russia as Moscow continues to carry out deadly attacks across Ukraine.

In his evening address on Friday, Zelenskyy said he plans for the army to launch at least “1,000 drones” against Russia daily, a more than threefold jump from the current estimate of 300.

“There needs to be more,” the president said. “There is a concrete goal, and we will fulfil this task.”

In a Telegram post, Zelenskyy also addressed reports that the United States’s spy chief, John Ratcliffe, had visited Moscow for meetings.

Zelenskyy said Kyiv “received information from the American side about the meetings in Moscow that took place these days”, but did not elaborate further.

“There were a number of meetings there,” he added, thanking the US “for the information and for the necessary tone of the conversation with Russia”.

Deaths across Ukraine

Ongoing Russian attacks have killed several people and wounded dozens across Ukraine over the past day.

At least one person was killed and two others injured in the Kyiv region early on Friday, regional Governor Tymur Tkachenko wrote on Telegram.

A drone strike on the northeastern Sumy region meanwhile killed one 61-year-old man and wounded seven people, four of whom were hospitalised, according to the regional military administration.

Russian air and artillery attacks also descended on Kherson overnight on Friday, killing a 61-year-old man and injuring 11 others, including a child, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. Strikes continued at multiple intervals throughout the day across Kherson, located in southern Ukraine near the Black Sea.

And in the Kharkiv region to the northeast, shelling killed a 26-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman, the local administration said. Another 13 people were injured, including two children.

Meanwhile in Russia, Ukraine’s army struck an oil refinery in the Yaroslavl region, located about 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) from the front line, according to Zelenskyy.

The Ukrainian president earlier wrote on Telegram that Kyiv’s military intelligence had proven the “high effectiveness” of strikes on military production and oil facilities deep in Russian territory, squeezing Moscow’s fuel supplies and export revenue while dealing “significant” damage to its solid-fuel rocket engine manufacturing.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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