The United States has suspended intelligence sharing with Kyiv in a move that could severely restrict the Ukrainian military’s ability to strike Russian forces.
The cut-off comes after the US suspended military aid to Ukraine amid a dramatic collapse in relations between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Since the start of the war in 2022, the US has provided Ukraine with significant intelligence, including critical information its military needs for targeting purposes.
It was not immediately clear to what extent the US had cut off the sharing.
In an interview with Fox Business broadcast on Wednesday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed the US “pause” in support.
“I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause [that prompted Ukraine’s president to respond] I think will go away,” Ratcliffe said.
“I think we’ll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine as we have to push back on the aggression that’s there, but to put the world in a better place for these peace negotiations to move forward,” he said.
But Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from the White House, says the move to withdraw intelligence cooperation is “just a tool to try and get Ukraine back to the table”.
“They [the US] also talked about stopping military aid to Ukraine, which the Ukrainians admit would hit their war efforts, not end it completely,” Fisher explained.
“Clearly, just the threat of those things has worked. So when you hear from the national security adviser saying things could be resumed in short order, it seems to suggest that any impact on Ukraine would be limited, to say the least, as long as peace talks certainly seem to be on the horizon sooner rather than later,” he said.
US-Ukraine relations broke down dramatically last week when Zelenskyy and Trump clashed in the White House on Friday, but there have been some signs of an improvement this week.
Trump on Tuesday said he received a letter from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which the Ukrainian leader expressed willingness to enter negotiations over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said in the letter that he was “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer”.
“We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence,” he wrote.
Since the war began in February 2022, the US has sent approximately $86bn to Ukraine in military aid, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
When asked how the Kremlin viewed Zelenskyy’s letter, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said “positively”.
“The question is who to sit down with. For now, the Ukrainian president is still legally prohibited from negotiating with the Russian side. So, overall, the approach is positive, but the nuances have not changed yet,” Peskov said, referring to a Zelenskyy decree in 2022 that ruled out negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However, Zelenskyy has repeatedly said he would be willing to meet Putin, but only after Kyiv and its allies agree on a common negotiating position.
On Wednesday, White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said that Trump would consider restoring aid to Ukraine if talks to end the war are arranged.
In an interview with Fox, Waltz said the letter was a “good, positive first step”.
“I think if we can nail down these negotiations and move towards these negotiations, and in fact, put some confidence-building measures on the table, then the president will take a hard look at lifting this pause,” he said without elaborating on the confidence-building measures.
“We have to know that both sides are sincerely negotiating towards a partial, then a permanent, peace,” he added.
