“Being the ambassador to Russia was probably the hardest assignment of my career,” Lynne Tracy, who represented the US in Moscow from 2023 and 2025, tells the BBC. US, UK and European diplomats once played a crucial role in Russia, defusing tensions even at the worst moments of the Cold War. But now, deemed “unfriendly”
Still, the Kremlin will be only too happy if Ukrainian drone strikes on oil facilities spark fury in the White House and curtail US support for Kyiv. Moscow would welcome Washington cutting off intelligence sharing to Ukraine and weapons sales to Europe that are destined for Kyiv. It has already delighted to hear Trump declaring:
The two envoys have travelled to Moscow on multiple occasions since Trump returned to office, but Sunday would be their first visit to Kyiv. Delegations from Ukraine have attended talks in the US over the past 18 months. Zelensky said on Saturday that Russia had fired “demonstrative” strikes on airports in Kyiv and Boryspil overnight
Ukraine’s main military intelligence agency published a breakdown of Russia’s Zircon missile, a weapon Moscow has increasingly employed in its intensifying strikes. Russia has been investing heavily in advancing its missile arsenal, upgrading systems and making them harder for air defenses to intercept. That reaction to Ukrainian air-defense wins now represents a major challenge as
Putin will be well aware of Donald Trump’s periodic disdain for Nato and he may have calculated that a low-key attack on say, Lithuania, is not going to trigger Nato’s mutual self-defence clause – Article 5 – and that the US will not respond. In which case it would make sense for part of the
The trip is thought to be Ratcliffe’s first trip to Russia as CIA director, although he has maintained contact with his intelligence counterparts in Moscow. He played a role in negotiations for the release of Russian-American citizen Ksenia Karelina’s, who was jailed in Russia for over a year after being accused of providing support to
