Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican's foreign minister, led a five-day mission to Moscow in late August 2026, meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other officials, and publicly offered dialogue and humanitarian assistance. ^[1] CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced visit to Moscow on 2026-08-25, his first trip to Russia as CIA director, which lasted roughly eight hours. ^[2] Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican's secretary for relations with states, visited Moscow from Aug. 24-28 and held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, but no concrete breakthrough was achieved. ^[3] At a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during his August 2026 mission, Archbishop Paul Gallagher said the Holy See's position is that the conflict cannot be resolved by military means and that 'this war must end.' ^[4] Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov thanked the Holy See for its 'balanced position' on the Ukrainian crisis and called relations 'trust, friendship and pragmatism,' but also cited 'root causes' including Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilians and Ukrainian efforts to curtail the Russian language and the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church. ^[5] Gallagher and Lavrov discussed possible humanitarian initiatives and the situation of children affected by the war, and the Holy See expressed willingness to continue offering spiritual, diplomatic, and humanitarian assistance. ^[6] In a Vatican News interview published Sunday, Gallagher said the Holy See does not enter into the details of negotiations or propose technical solutions, which he said is the direct responsibility of the belligerent parties, and he invited Russia and Ukraine to show goodwill to seriously begin dialogue. ^[7] On the first day of his visit, Gallagher met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for more than an hour, but was not received by Russian President Vladimir Putin. ^[8]