MOSCOW, Aug. 29 -- Three days after CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew out of Moscow without a public statement, Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on Friday. The warheads landed on a test range in Kamchatka. Hours later, the Kremlin announced that Ukraine peace negotiations had entered what spokesman Dmitry Peskov called a "deep pause" with no new proposals from anyone.

The two statements were separated by a single working day. They are not unrelated.

Sputnik International reported that the Russian Defense Ministry described the launch as a training and combat exercise designed to "confirm the tactical, technical and flight characteristics of the missile system." The missile was a solid-fue...