Even as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues and US-backed peace efforts stall, US President Donald Trump’s administration appears to be taking steps to increase its contacts with key figures in Moscow.
The latest signs that the U.S. wants stronger ties include CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s unusual visit to Moscow and Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov’s surprise appearance at the U.S.-hosted Group of 20 meeting on Monday.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
However, analysts said the contacts did not necessarily mean a restoration of U.S.-Russian relations.
The United States continues to support sanctions against Russia while waging war against Ukraine, and major territorial differences remain unresolved.
So what were these recent contacts about, and are U.S.-Russian relations on the upswing?
The most important recent meeting was Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow last week where he met with Russian intelligence officials.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin had been informed of the talks but did not meet Ratcliffe directly.
President Trump described the trip as “semi-routine” and said it was tied to efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Ratcliffe also expressed concern about possible Russian attacks on NATO members and relations between Russia and Iran, according to US media reports.
President Trump has claimed to end the war in Ukraine within “24 hours” of the start of his second presidential term in January 2025, but has since failed to broker a deal and generally sought to ease tensions between the United States and Russia. After Ratcliffe’s visit, he said the CIA director had a “good meeting” with Putin. “He’s not going to attack NATO territory,” Trump said.
Despite this, Russia recently warned that Britain could face “consequences” for supplying Ukraine with drones that were used for long-range attacks inside Russian territory. “London’s actions will inevitably have consequences, to which it will have to answer,” the Russian embassy in London said in a mid-August statement. “The deeper the involvement in the conflict and the greater the support for terrorist organizations in Kyiv, the greater the price to pay.”
Separately, Siluanov made a surprise appearance at the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in North Carolina, the United States, for the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with Siluanov on the sidelines of the G20 meeting.
According to Reuters, Bessent made it clear that there would be no financial deals or economic relief for Russia until the war is over.
What’s the latest on the US-Russian talks on Ukraine?
Hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough remain bleak, as neither side intends to cede territory to the other. U.S.-brokered Russia-Ukraine negotiations broke down this year, mainly over Moscow’s territorial claims. The Russian government has demanded that Kiev give up territory in eastern Ukraine, but Kiev has refused to hand over any land it still controls.
Kirillo Budanov, Ukraine’s top presidential adviser, said last week that talks involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States could take place “soon.”
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had “detailed and constructive” discussions with U.S. Special Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about a potential visit to Ukraine and efforts to advance the peace process.
Meanwhile, the stalemate continues. Russia and Ukraine continue to trade attacks, targeting each other’s energy infrastructure and engaging in heavy fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
Russian air strikes killed 12 people and injured many more in Kiev and surrounding areas on Tuesday, local authorities said. Violent strikes in the capital continued for the sixth consecutive day.
Zelensky’s government’s sanctions chairman, Vladislav Vlasiuk, told Reuters on Monday that he planned to be in the US capital on Tuesday for a visit that will include meetings with lawmakers.
Are US-Russian relations improving? If so, what does it mean?
The restoration of high-level contacts between the United States and Russia began early in President Trump’s second term.
In February, the U.S. government and Russia agreed to resume high-level military-to-military talks that had been suspended shortly before Russia began its war with Ukraine.
“Evidence that relations between Washington and Moscow are being normalized should be a cause for alarm,” said Keir Giles, associate research fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Chatham House think tank, after the recent contacts.
“The United States treating Russia as a partner rather than an adversary is a fundamental problem for all countries under direct threat from Moscow, not just Ukraine but also the United States’ European allies,” Giles told Al Jazeera.
Insiders also warn that Russia could be further emboldened against NATO by its closeness with President Trump. In August, after the Russian government warned Britain of the “consequences” of providing long-range missile parts to Ukraine, Russia’s former deputy foreign minister Andrei Fedorov told the BBC that these “consequences” could include the possibility of an attack. He said many military experts advising the Kremlin were confident that NATO would not respond forcefully if Russia attacked Britain. “President Trump will not allow NATO to answer,” he said.
This week, Poland’s Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski said he regretted the presence of Russian representatives at Monday’s G20 meeting. “We don’t trust Russia. They lie all the time and we need to be really, really careful when discussing with them,” he told Reuters.
On Tuesday, European Union economic chief Valdis Dombrovskis also said now was not the right time to “normalize” Russia’s participation in G20 meetings. “I think we know the European position,” Dombrovskis told reporters on the sidelines of the North Carolina meeting.
