CIA and Vatican visits converge in Moscow amid rising tensions over Ukraine
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — The CIA director made an unannounced visit to Moscow on Tuesday (Aug. 25) as the Vatican’s foreign minister led a five-day mission to the Russian capital, in disparate attempts to influence an end to the war in Ukraine.
Multiple reports said CIA Director John Ratcliffe privately delivered a warning to the Kremlin to avoid an escalation to the conflict, although accounts differed over the principal purpose of his visit. Meanwhile, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, who leads the Vatican’s diplomacy with states, publicly offered Russian officials dialogue and humanitarian assistance.
“In a simplistic way, it looked like a good cop, bad cop operation,” said Victor Gaetan, author of “God’s Diplomats: Pope Francis, Vatican Diplomacy and America’s Armageddon.”
Gallagher’s visit marked an important moment for Vatican diplomacy under Pope Leo XIV, who has expressed more conspicuous sympathy for Ukraine than his predecessor, Pope Francis, while preserving the Holy See’s traditional insistence on dialogue with both sides. And the simultaneous presence of Ratcliffe raised questions about whether the first U.S. pope’s peace diplomacy might intersect with Washington’s strategic pressure on Moscow.
Gaetan noted that Washington and the Holy See have cooperated secretly before, most prominently in the negotiations that led to the 2014 restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba.
Neither the government nor the Vatican has indicated the Moscow visits were coordinated. But their convergence presented Russia with two complementary messages from the West.
People enjoy a view of a rainbow, backdropped by St. Basil’s Cathedral, center, and the Spasskaya Tower, right, in Red Square during the golden hour in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Ratcliffe’s Tuesday visit, which lasted roughly eight hours, was his first trip to Russia as CIA director. A practicing Catholic who earned his law degree from the University of Notre Dame, Ratcliffe reportedly met Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, and carried several messages to Moscow. The New York Times reported that he gave Russia a “bleak assessment” of its war prospects, while The Wall Street Journal and Politico reported he warned against attacking NATO members, in particular, the Baltic states.
Meanwhile, Gallagher’s five-day trip to Moscow mixed diplomacy with spirituality and included meetings with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, the Orthodox church in Russia and the local Catholic community.
“The position of the Holy See remains clear: the conflict cannot be resolved by military means,” the archbishop said in a joint press conference with Lavrov after their meeting.
Gallagher pointed to the challenges of promoting dialogue the longer the conflict continues. The war in Ukraine has been ongoing for four-and-a-half years, and combined casualties may have reached 2 million, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Let us be clear, this war must end,” Gallagher said, urging leaders to “look beyond the conflict.”
He also underlined that the Holy See and Russia discussed peaceful avenues and that the church offered to continue its humanitarian efforts, especially in caring for children impacted by the war.
The Holy See will “continue to provide strong spiritual, diplomatic and humanitarian support by contributing to and offering a space for dialogue,” he added.
Lavrov recognized that Vatican-Russian relations “continue to be characterized by trust, friendship and pragmatism” and thanked the Holy See for its “balanced position” on the Ukrainian crisis. But the Russian minister for foreign affairs also leaned on what he considers the “root causes” of the conflict, pointing to Ukrainian attacks against Russian civilians, including children, and Ukrainian efforts to curtail the influence of the Russian language and the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Ukraine has stated that it’s not attempting to suppress the Russian Church but prevent it from being used as a Russian tool for influence, while it argues that the Russian language has been only restricted in official contexts.
“The joint press conference with Mr. Lavrov demonstrated that the Holy See diplomacy matters, especially in a context of war,” Gaetan said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Aug. 25, 2026, in Moscow. (Photo by Russian Foreign Ministry)
Gallagher’s most discreet engagement came in closed-door talks with Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s senior foreign policy adviser and a central figure in Moscow’s negotiations over Ukraine. Neither the Vatican nor the Kremlin disclosed details of the meeting.
On Tuesday, Gallagher also met with Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, who leads the Moscow Patriarchate’s relations with other churches.
The meeting addressed “pressing issues concerning the situation in the world,” according to a statement by the church’s department for external church relations, and presented Gallagher with information about the “persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Ukrainian state authorities.”
While the Holy See has historically maintained a neutral stance in conflicts to provide a platform for dialogue and peace, “Leo does appear to be more preoccupied with the Ukrainian tragedy,” Gaetan said. He suggested Leo’s American Catholic formation during the Cold War may help explain why his public posture toward Russia differs from that of his predecessor. Francis, by contrast, approached the conflict from a Latin American perspective generally more suspicious of Western geopolitical narratives.
Despite this week’s effort by the Vatican to approach a dialogue with Russia, it maintained a strong posture in defense of the Ukrainian people.
Gallagher’s arrival in Moscow occurred on the anniversary of Ukraine’s 1991 Declaration of Independence from the Soviet Union. That same day, Leo addressed Portuguese military and security personnel at the Vatican and affirmed that their “noble mission” is that of “defending the sovereignty of your homeland and the rule of law.” Although the pope did not mention Ukraine in that passage, the language resonated with a conflict rooted in Russia’s violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and sits in stark contrast with Francis’ suggestion in 2022 that the “barking of NATO at Russia’s door” may have led to the invasion.
Pope Leo also appealed for peace in “martyred Ukraine” in his first Sunday address as pontiff in May 2025, and he held his first meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his inaugural Mass. That same month, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated that Leo attempted to mediate a peace between the warring nations, but Lavrov shut down the idea of a Catholic country hosting peace talks between two Orthodox nations. Leo met Zelenskyy again in his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo in July and December of last year.
Speaking to journalist Elise Harris of Crux, Leo recognized the Holy See’s “great efforts” to maintain a neutral position on the Ukraine-Russia war, “as difficult as it might be.”
The first and only phone call between Leo and Putin took place in June of last year.
With the possibility of hosting peace talks seemingly off the table, Pope Leo seems to have shifted tactics, opting for traditional Vatican diplomacy with an emphasis on humanitarian efforts. Last July, he sent Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the head of the Italian bishops’ conference and a skilled diplomat, to Ukraine, quickly followed by a visit by Gallagher.
On July 4, Leo also had an unprecedented informal dinner with the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch. This week, Burch met with President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss how the U.S. “can partner with the Holy See to promote global peace and religious freedom,” according to a post by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See on X.
Burch presented baseballs signed by Leo “as a gesture of friendship.”
Alexander Willis
August 29, 2026
U.S. President Donald Trump and John Ratcliffe, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), speak as they depart after a Cabinet meeting at Camp David in Thurmont, Maryland, U.S., July 31, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/Pool
CIA Director John Ratcliffe raised eyebrows this week after secretly jetting off to Moscow, Russia, and while the Kremlin denied that any meetings between Russian officials and Ratcliffe took place, two insiders on Saturday revealed at least one apparent reason for the mysterious trip.
Two sources briefed on the matter told Axios Saturday that while in Moscow, Ratcliffe proposed a “trilateral meeting” between President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in just the latest effort to end the Russo-Ukraine war. Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has struggled to bring about an end to the conflict despite his repeated efforts.
“Ratcliffe's visit was partly aimed at determining whether Russia's heads of intelligence services could help convince Putin to move toward resuming U.S.-mediated negotiations with Ukraine, the sources said,” Axios’ Barak Ravid wrote in the outlet’s report.
“On Friday, U.S. officials briefed Zelensky on Ratcliffe's talks in Moscow and the proposal for a trilateral summit.”
Ratcliffe’s trip was so secretive that even top White House aides were “in the dark” about the expedition. The trip reportedly sent European officials “scrambling for information,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
According to reports, Ratcliffe took a secretive route to Moscow aboard an unmarked U.S. C-17 military cargo plane flying out of Latvia. Trump, when asked about the trip by reporters, downplayed the mission as being “semi-routine.”
“This was the first time Ratcliffe got personally involved in the diplomatic push to broker a breakthrough between Russia and Ukraine,” Axios’ report reads.
“Ratcliffe met with his Russian counterparts: SVR foreign intelligence chief Sergey Naryshkin and FSB director Alexander Bortnikov. Trump told Axios that Ratcliffe's visit was ‘standard business’ and not intended to warn Russia against attacking NATO territory.”
Bennito L. Kelty
August 27, 2026
FILE PHOTO: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe attends a U.S. House Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 19, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper/File Photo
CIA Director John Ratcliffe's secret trip to Russia came at the personal direction of President Donald Trump while senior White House aides were kept in the dark.
According to a Thursday report by the Wall Street Journal, the covert diplomatic mission to Moscow was tightly held as Trump dispatched his top spy to carry a message to top Kremlin figures. Trump's move bypassed aides and military brass who would ordinarily be looped in beforehand, The Journal noted.
The choice to send Ratcliffe as an envoy also marked a shift, The Journal pointed out. Earlier rounds of talks were led by other Trump confidants but failed to halt the fighting in Ukraine. Trump then turned to Ratcliffe, according to anonymous U.S. officials who talked to The Journal.
Ratcliffe reportedly also took a secretive route into Russia as he flew into Moscow aboard an unmarked U.S. C-17 military cargo plane out of Latvia, according to The Journal. European officials told The Journal that the move sent them scrambling to figure out what had happened once word got out about Ratcliffe's mission.
Two European officials told The Journal that they were briefed on the meeting. Ratcliffe used the sit-down to stress Washington's continued backing of NATO's mutual-defense pledge and to warn Russia off any strike on alliance members, they told The Journal and later reporting revealed.
Trump brushed off worries about Russian aggression when reporters asked him about Ratcliffe's mission on Thursday, The Journal noted. Putin "won't attack NATO territory," Trump told reporters.
He also downplayed Ratcliffe's trip when he told conservative radio host Glenn Beck in an interview that the mission was "semi-routine," The Journal noted.
Officials along NATO's eastern edge struck a similarly calm tone, according to The Journal. Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs addressed the matter in a video posted to social media, The Journal reported.
"There is currently no reason for concern," Kulbergs said. "Latvia's level of military threat hasn't changed. The risk of direct military invasion threats to Latvia is currently low."
Former senior U.S. intelligence official J.C. Lintzenich, now at the German Marshall Fund, struck a graver tone when talking to The Journal, however.
"Putin has a tolerance for extraordinary risk and is even potentially willing to escalate to compel de-escalation," Lintzenich said. "But he is unlikely to roll the dice on actions that could threaten the Russian state."
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