The Kremlin said Tuesday that no talks between Moscow and US envoys are planned this week, as Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations remain stalled.
"No, there are no such plans," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a press briefing.
Citing sources, Russian state news agency Tass reported in early August that a visit by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner could take place within a week to 10 days in an effort to revive Ukraine peace talks, which Moscow and Kyiv have said stalled as Washington shifted its focus to the Iran war.
On Aug. 14, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said President Vladimir Putin was ready to meet the two US envoys if they traveled to Moscow, but stressed that what mattered were the proposals they would bring.
Witkoff and Kushner last visited Moscow to meet Putin in late January.
At the press briefing, Peskov also said statements by Western politicians, particularly Finnish President Alexander Stubb and more than one British premier, including current Prime Minister Andy Burnham, indicated a continued "aggressive" stance toward Russia.
"They want the war to continue. They're deceiving their voters, telling them that Russia could be defeated. … And they apparently refuse to acknowledge the realities on the ground," Peskov said.
He reaffirmed Russia's opposition to the deployment of NATO military contingents in Ukraine and rejected the idea of a "free economic zone" in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
Asked about reports that a US military plane landed in Moscow on Tuesday morning, Peskov said he had "no such information."
According to Flightradar24, a US Air Force C-17A Globemaster III flew from the Latvian capital Riga to Moscow's Vnukovo Airport after arriving two days earlier from Camp Springs in the US, near Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where White House aircraft are often based.
Later Tuesday, CBS News reported, citing sources familiar with the situation, that CIA Director John Ratcliffe was in the Russian capital for meetings. Neither US authorities nor the CIA have commented on the report.
Separately, citing a source with knowledge of the matter, Axios reported Washington told Kyiv that a senior delegation will be visiting Moscow and asked Ukraine to suspend strikes on the Russian capital until it leaves.
Russian journalist Alexander Yunashev said in a statement on Telegram that his sources confirmed Ratcliffe had flown to Moscow.
Yunashev said Putin was initially scheduled to take part in a large event on Tuesday, though this was postponed a couple of days ago.
"Considering my sources confirmed that it was the CIA director who flew to Moscow, we can now speculate on the reason for the meeting that led to the presidential schedule being changed," he said.
The reports, if confirmed, would mark the first such visit since then-CIA Director William Burns traveled to Moscow back in 2021.
