Washington’s pause on sharing military intelligence with Ukraine has affected information that was used to warn of Russian drone and missile strikes on military and civilian targets, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing U.S. sources.
A senior Ukrainian official told the Times that the suspension would also make it harder for Ukraine’s military to strike Russian forces, but added that Kyiv still has access to other satellite imagery.
The former head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, Valeriy Kondratiuk, said that “everything coming from the Department of Defense has stopped.” He added, “This mostly concerns the exchange of imagery. This isn’t critical because European companies have their own satellites, but not all these are focused on military dislocation and movements, which is important.”
The Times notes that the CIA maintains a “sizable presence” in Ukraine, where its officers work alongside their Ukrainian counterparts to help identify targets. The agency has also helped set up at least three secret bases used by the Ukrainians to intercept Russian communications, which reduces Ukraine’s reliance on U.S. intelligence.
Earlier, journalist Oliver Carroll reported that the U.S. had cut off a “key intel link” and stopped providing targeting data for HIMARS, as well as real-time information for long-range strikes inside Russia.
A Ukrainian military officer familiar with the country’s HIMARS operations told The Washington Post that targeting data had stopped coming through even before the contentious meeting between the Ukrainian and U.S. presidents at the White House last week. According to the source, at least one of the groups responsible for launching the missiles had not received targeting coordinates for strikes beyond about 40 miles behind the contact line in recent weeks.
Background
U.S. stops sharing intelligence with Ukraine — Financial Times
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