🇺🇦 Volodymyr Zelensky’s plane was “almost hit by a drone” as it took off from Moldova for King Harald’s funeral in Oslo, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has said.
Ukrainian sources say they were aware of Russian drones entering Moldovan airspace.
Follow: @europa
— @europa Sep 9, 2026
Month: September 2026
British SAS and US Navy Seal veterans ‘among Western ex servicemen training Russians to fight in Ukraine’ at Bulgarian military camps, leaked report claims trib.al/wf8d4cs
— @DailyMail Sep 9, 2026
#CIA #DIA #Mossad
The Russia-Ukraine conflict cannot be solved through transactional real estate-style dealmaking.
Handing the reins to Ratcliffe suggests the administration is looking for a more authoritative figure who commands respect from the security apparatuses of both nations.
CIA Director’s Role in Ukraine Talks share.gemini.google/Oo2EtHea…
US spy chief prepares for greater role in Russia-Ukraine talks ft.com/content/d0557d25-78b5…Gemini
While the original Financial Times article is behind a paywall, the details of its exclusive report have been widely cited by other diplomatic and news sources.Here is a summary of the Financial Times article and its surrounding context, followed by a brief commentary on the implications.
Summary of the FT Report
A Shift in Diplomatic Leadership: CIA Director John Ratcliffe is preparing to take a more prominent, leading role in U.S. “shuttle diplomacy” between Russia and Ukraine. His goal is to jump-start the stalled negotiations to end the four-and-a-half-year-long war.
Sidelining Political Envoys: The White House is actively considering scaling back the involvement of special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Witkoff and Kushner have been leading the talks thus far—including eight trips to Moscow and one to Kyiv—but their efforts have failed to yield tangible diplomatic progress.
Leveraging Intelligence Channels: U.S. officials have informed their European counterparts of the shift. By stepping in, Ratcliffe plans to combine direct diplomatic negotiations with the backchannel contacts he already maintains with intelligence officers in both Moscow and Kyiv.
Pending Final Approval: While Ratcliffe is preparing for this expanded role, sources indicate that President Trump has not yet finalized the decision. Witkoff may still retain his broader title as a U.S. special envoy for peace missions (which includes Middle East negotiations) and might work in parallel with Ratcliffe.
Recent Precedent: The FT report follows Ratcliffe’s unannounced trip to Moscow in late August 2026—the first visit by a CIA chief to Russia since Bill Burns went in November 2021. During that trip, Ratcliffe reportedly warned Russian intelligence that escalating the war would backfire and urged a return to the negotiating table.Commentary & Analysis
1. A Pivot to “Hard” Diplomacy
Replacing business-minded political appointees (Witkoff and Kushner) with a seasoned intelligence chief signals a realization in Washington that the Russia-Ukraine conflict cannot be solved through transactional real estate-style dealmaking. Ratcliffe’s involvement brings a hard-nosed, intelligence-driven approach to the table. As CIA Director, he has a clear-eyed view of battlefield realities, troop attrition, and economic vulnerabilities, allowing him to negotiate based on classified leverage rather than just political goodwill.
2. Frustration with the Kushner/Witkoff ChannelThe reshuffling highlights a growing frustration with the current peace envoys. According to auxiliary reports, officials in Kyiv felt Witkoff was not applying enough pressure on Moscow, while the Kremlin partly blamed him for the lack of progress at recent summits. Handing the reins to Ratcliffe suggests the administration is looking for a more authoritative figure who commands respect from the security apparatuses of both nations.
3. Putin’s Resistance and the Uphill BattleDespite the strategic shift, Ratcliffe faces an incredibly difficult task. Following his August visit to Moscow—where he reportedly warned the Kremlin that their position would only deteriorate in the coming months—Vladimir Putin responded not by softening, but by intensifying relentless airstrikes against Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure. This indicates that Putin likely viewed the U.S. push for talks as a sign of Western fatigue rather than Russian weakness.
4. The Backchannel AdvantageHistorically, intelligence channels have remained the most resilient lines of communication between adversarial nations when traditional diplomatic relations break down. By centralizing the negotiations under the CIA Director, the U.S. ensures that peace talks are directly tied to the intelligence the U.S. is gathering on Russia’s military capabilities and its deepening military ties with Iran.
— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) Sep 9, 2026
A drone nearly hit the aircraft carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife as it left Moldova for Oslo,
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said a drone “almost hit” Zelensky’s plane as it departed Moldova for Oslo.
“That is the reality he has to live in,” reporters quoted him as saying.
Norwegian prime minister gave no further details.
A map shows the route the aircraft flew from Moldova to Oslo on Tuesday evening.
— @visegrad24 Sep 9, 2026
❗️ Zelenskyy’s plane was almost shot down by a drone in Moldova, — Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre
“His plane was nearly shot down by a drone during takeoff in Moldova. That is the reality he lives in.”
— @front_ukrainian Sep 9, 2026
CIA director John Ratcliffe is preparing to take a bigger role in US negotiations with Russia and Ukraine, US officials have told their European counterparts, in a bid to jump-start moribund diplomatic efforts to end the four-and-a-half-year-long war. The move comes as the White House is considering
 |
Michael_Novakhov shared this story . |
CIA director John Ratcliffe is preparing to take a bigger role in US negotiations with Russia and Ukraine, US officials have told their European counterparts, in a bid to jump-start moribund diplomatic efforts to end the four-and-a-half-year-long war.
The move comes as the White House is considering paring back the involvement of US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who have been leading the talks with Moscow and Kyiv, according to five people familiar with the plans.
Officials close to Ratcliffe have told European peers that he will play a larger role in shuttle diplomacy between Russia and Ukraine — which is currently the purview of Witkoff and Kushner — while maintaining contact with intelligence officers in both countries.
Liz Lyons, CIA director of public affairs, said: “This reporting is false.” People close to the situation said Trump has not made a final decision.
The telegraphed switch away from Witkoff has enthused European capitals desperate to see some progress after a year and a half of largely fruitless talks with Russia, which have stalled as President Vladimir Putin has refused to budge on his hardline demands.
The US administration has considered shaking up its negotiating team after US-led efforts to broker a peace deal foundered in late February, according to two people involved in back-channel talks to end the war. That diplomatic effort was put on hold as the Trump administration was preoccupied with the war in Iran, which broke out shortly after the last US-led round of Ukraine talks.
The White House said in a statement: “This entire story is totally fake news . . . None of these supposed conversations are happening. Special envoy Witkoff and Jared Kushner continue to work incredibly hard towards a peace agreement, and the President trusts them fully to lead negotiations on behalf of the United States.”
Witkoff, a close friend of Trump, would likely retain his current role as US special envoy for peace missions, which includes negotiations in the Middle East, according to people familiar with the matter. The billionaire real estate investor could also remain involved in Ukraine in parallel to Ratcliffe, they added.
Two of the people said there was a tug of war under way between Ratcliffe and Witkoff about who leads on what.
Witkoff’s freewheeling approach, bypassing the strictures of traditional diplomacy in favour of direct contacts more reminiscent of a New York real estate deal, has frustrated Russia, Ukraine and Kyiv’s western allies.
Ukraine felt that Witkoff had not done enough to pressure Putin to moderate his demands. Russia believed Witkoff shared part of the blame for the failure of a summit with Trump in Alaska last year to achieve a breakthrough, according to Ukrainian officials and people briefed on the Kremlin’s thinking.
Putin has praised Witkoff’s efforts, but Moscow has also quietly indicated it would be open to a new US approach, according to people involved in back-channel talks.
The White House also considered appointing a new US ambassador to Moscow this spring in the hope of opening another channel with Russia, according to people familiar with the matter.
Ratcliffe made a surprise visit to Moscow in late August, and discussed the wars in Ukraine and Iran, as well as Russia’s “hybrid” threats to Europe, with senior intelligence officials, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump downplayed Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow as “sort of semi-routine”.
But Ukrainian intelligence briefed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week that Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow indicated he was stepping in to take a more prominent role in US efforts to end Russia’s invasion, people familiar with the matter said.
Putin had initially planned to meet Ratcliffe, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Russian president then backed out after Ratcliffe delivered a downbeat assessment of Moscow’s war effort to senior Russian intelligence officials. Russian independent news site Agentstvo first reported that Putin had cancelled a planned meeting with Ratcliffe.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, told the FT no meeting between Putin and Ratcliffe had been planned. Trump and Putin did not discuss a potential change in the US negotiating team when they spoke by phone on Tuesday, he added.
The week after Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow, Witkoff and Kushner flew to meet Putin in Moscow and Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
Their visit — Witkoff’s eighth trip to Russia — was in part an effort to retain the Ukraine brief, according to two people familiar with the matter.
After their visits, Witkoff and Kushner said they were optimistic the US, Russia and Ukraine could resume trilateral talks suspended since February.
But people familiar with the talks in Moscow and Kyiv told the FT that the Americans brought few new ideas and that Putin showed little indication he was prepared to back down from his earlier demands.
“You can’t solve this by dipping in and out,” one of the people said. “It’s a very complex conflict. You need properly organised, full-time work on every issue. Right now that’s not happening.”
Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s top foreign policy official, said on state television on Tuesday that Putin told Trump the US could secure an immediate ceasefire by ending all support for Ukraine — in effect letting Russia win.
At the same time, Kushner has told friends he expects to move on from Ukraine and would prefer to focus on diplomatic efforts related to the conflict in Gaza and the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Three senior Ukrainian officials said Kyiv had good working relations with Ratcliffe as well as Witkoff and Kushner and had no preference for who Trump appointed to lead the US efforts.
“We’re OK with [Ratcliffe], and with Jared and Steve too,” said one of the Ukrainian officials. “The problem is the Russians.”
Additional reporting by Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in Berlin
This story has been amended to include the White House statement.
⚡️🇺🇦 “Zelensky’s plane was almost shot down by a drone during takeoff from Moldova to Oslo. This is the reality he faced,” – PM of Norway
— @Maks_NAFO_FELLA Sep 9, 2026
🇺🇸🇮🇱🇵🇸 A new report is raising a brutal question about the very first hours of October 7: was there a chance to get civilian hostages out immediately?
Haaretz reports that Qatar’s PM called Antony Blinken that night and said Hamas was prepared to release civilian hostages, while Israel was not interested in moving forward at that stage.
The report says Blinken responded by telling him to wait.
Blinken flatly denies it:
“For the record, this is false. Complete fiction.”
So what actually happened in those first hours?
Was there ever a real unconditional offer to free civilians?
Did Israel reject it? Did Blinken tell Qatar to hold off?
Writer: Sol
— @MarioNawfal Sep 9, 2026
Breaking:
Norway says it will join Mecca defense pact with Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
— @_MegaPolitics Sep 9, 2026