Zelenskyy says Ukraine preparing for new talks with Trump envoys as Moscow meeting rumours swirl

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on 30 August that his team is preparing for a new round of communication with representatives of US President Donald Trump, following a week of intense behind-the-scenes diplomacy that included a secret CIA visit to Moscow and a postponed US envoy trip to Kyiv.

"Together with the team, we are preparing for new communication with envoys of the US president. More details will follow tomorrow," Zelenskyy said in his evening address on 30 August, according to Ukrainska Pravda. He added that "America shares many of our views on the situation both on the front and with the strikes."

The announcement came two days after Zelenskyy confirmed that Kyiv had received detailed information from Washington about a series of meetings that took place in Moscow in recent days. "We had spoken beforehand, and we have also spoken with the American side now. I thank them for the information and for the necessary tone of the conversation with Russia," he said on 28 August, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda.

That Moscow visit was later revealed to have been made by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who travelled to the Russian capital on 25 August. According to The Wall Street Journal, Ratcliffe's trip was prompted by US intelligence indicating early preparations by Russia for a possible new military mobilisation. Politico reported that during the visit, Ratcliffe warned Russian officials against escalating the conflict with NATO allies, particularly Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Washington also asked Kyiv to refrain from striking Moscow and St Petersburg during Ratcliffe's time in Russia, a request that Ukrainian officials complied with, according to multiple media reports.

Trilateral meeting floated

Axios reported that Ratcliffe, during his Moscow trip, proposed the idea of a trilateral meeting between Trump, Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin has since responded, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying on 30 August that such a meeting would only be possible "to formalise agreements" — not to negotiate them.

"Such a meeting is possible only to formalise agreements. Agreements are not at all a primitive deal. It is a very complex settlement process consisting of a huge number of details," Peskov said, according to Ukrainska Pravda. He also accused Ukraine of not wanting to engage in "a real settlement," a phrase Russia typically uses to mean Ukrainian capitulation.

The timing of the new Ukrainian-US communication is significant. On 24 August — Ukraine's Independence Day — the long-anticipated visit to Kyiv by US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner was postponed without public explanation.

Strategic implications

For Ukraine, the flurry of diplomatic activity — and the lack of a clear public outcome from Ratcliffe's Moscow trip — raises questions about the direction of US mediation. Trump has said he believes "maybe something will come" of the CIA director's visit, but has offered no specifics.

Zelenskyy, for his part, struck a cautiously optimistic tone on 30 August: "We are doing everything to ensure that war doesn't remain the only option for what comes next."

The president's reference to shared American views on strikes — likely a nod to Ukraine's ongoing long-range drone and missile campaign against Russian military targets — suggests that Kyiv sees the upcoming talks as an opportunity to lock in continued US support while probing the contours of any potential negotiation framework.

What remains unclear is whether the Trump administration is preparing to push Ukraine toward concessions or simply trying to gather intelligence on Russian intentions. Zelenskyy promised more details on the upcoming communication "tomorrow" — 31 August — which may shed light on whether the postponed Witkoff-Kushner visit will be rescheduled, or whether the new talks will take place in a different format.