U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussed President Donald Trump’s peace initiative involving Russia, according to a CNBC report circulated Monday, adding another signal that Washington is trying to revive negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
The brief report did not indicate that Russia had accepted a new peace proposal or that an agreement had been reached. Instead, it comes amid a wider diplomatic push that has accelerated over the past week, including an unusual visit to Moscow by CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe met senior Russian intelligence officials during the trip, which the Kremlin confirmed on Aug. 26. President Vladimir Putin was briefed afterward but did not personally meet the CIA director. Trump said at the time that the visit could contribute to efforts to end the Ukraine war.
Trump’s Peace Push Now Centers on a Three-Leader Summit
The more significant development came afterward.
During his Moscow visit, Ratcliffe proposed a potential trilateral summit involving Trump, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Axios reported. The proposal was aimed at restarting U.S.-mediated negotiations that had stalled earlier this year.
Moscow, however, is already placing conditions on such a meeting.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that a Trump-Putin-Zelenskyy summit would make sense only after negotiators had already worked out the substance of a settlement. Russia’s position is effectively that national leaders should meet to finalize an agreement rather than negotiate its core terms from scratch.
That creates a significant hurdle for Trump’s initiative because there is currently no publicly announced framework acceptable to both Kyiv and Moscow.
Diplomacy Returns While Fighting Intensifies
The renewed diplomatic activity is unfolding against sharply different conditions on the battlefield.
Russia has launched roughly 1,500 drones against Ukraine over four days, according to Zelenskyy, with attacks on Kyiv and surrounding regions continuing for a fifth consecutive day Monday. A Russian strike near Kyiv on Friday killed 38 people, while Ukraine has continued striking targets inside Russia.
That contrast makes the timing of Bessent’s comments particularly important: Washington is discussing another peace initiative while the military confrontation is intensifying rather than freezing.
Russia also retains considerable economic pressure from Western sanctions. The European Union’s latest package expanded restrictions across banks, energy infrastructure, shipping and crypto-linked operators. Coinpaper recently examined how the bloc’s Russia sanctions package targeted 94 financial institutions alongside crypto operators and shadow-fleet vessels.
Washington’s own strategy has been more complicated. Treasury temporarily relaxed restrictions on certain Russian oil already at sea earlier this year as the Iran conflict disrupted global energy markets, highlighting how geopolitical priorities can collide with efforts to economically isolate Moscow. Coinpaper covered both the initial Russian oil waiver and its later extension.
Meanwhile, two Democratic senators recently questioned Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio over what they described as a lengthy pause in routine new U.S. sanctions against Russia, arguing that stalled peace talks should have prompted Washington to rebuild economic leverage.
For now, Bessent’s CNBC comments are best viewed as evidence that Trump’s Russia initiative remains active, not evidence of a diplomatic breakthrough. The next meaningful signal will be whether Washington can move Moscow and Kyiv toward substantive terms that would make the three-leader summit Russia says it requires possible.
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