U.S. cuts intelligence to Ukraine, pressuring Zelenskyy on peace

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK >> The U.S. has paused intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said today, piling pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to cooperate with President Donald Trump in convening peace talks with Russia.

The suspension, which could hurt Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russian missile strikes, followed a halt this week to U.S. military aid to Kyiv. It underscores Trump’s willingness to play hardball with an ally as he pivots to a more conciliatory approach to Moscow from what was strong U.S. support for Ukraine.

The pressure appears to have worked, with Trump on Tuesday saying he received a letter from Zelenskyy in which the Ukrainian leader said he was willing to come to the negotiating table.

“I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause I think will go away,” Ratcliffe told Fox Business Network.

“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.

Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told another Fox program that the president would consider restoring assistance to Kyiv if peace talks are arranged and unspecified confidence-building measures taken.

A source familiar with the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Trump administration had halted “everything,” including targeting data that Ukraine has used to strike Russian targets.

A second source said intelligence-sharing had only “partially” been cut, but was unable to provide more detail.

Washington on Monday halted military aid to Kyiv following a disastrous Oval Office meeting on Friday in which Trump and Zelenskyy engaged in a shouting match before the world’s media. The clash delayed the signing of a Ukraine-U.S. minerals deal.

European countries are scrambling to boost defense spending and maintain support for Ukraine after the military aid freeze fueled doubts about Washington’s commitment to its European NATO allies.

FINALIZING MINERALS DEAL

In his address to Congress on Tuesday evening, Trump said Kyiv was ready to sign a deal on exploiting Ukraine’s critical mineral deposits, which the U.S. leader has demanded to repay the costs of U.S. military aid. He provided no further information.

Trump also said he had been in “serious discussions with Russia” and had received strong signals that they were ready for peace.

“It’s time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars you have to talk to both sides,” he said.

The U.S. has provided critical intelligence to Ukraine for its fight against Moscow’s forces, including information that helped thwart Russian President Vladimir Putin’s drive to seize Kyiv at the start of his full-scale invasion in February 2022.

But in less than two months in office, Trump has upended U.S. policy, stunning and alienating European allies and raising concerns about the future of the NATO alliance.

He has also ended Putin’s isolation through phone calls with the Russian leader and talks between Russian and U.S. aides in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, from which Ukraine and its European allies were excluded.

Some experts said the U.S. intelligence-sharing suspension would hurt Ukraine’s ability to strike Russian forces, which occupy about 20 percent of the country’s territory.

“Unfortunately, our dependence in this regard is quite serious, starting with missile threats, missile attacks and ending with what is happening in Russia, in the temporarily occupied territories in terms of launching strikes,” said Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies.

Some of the loss could be offset through purchases of commercial satellite imagery, but only military satellites could pinpoint missile launches, he said.

The intelligence suspension also will complicate Ukraine’s defenses against Russian air and missile strikes, Bielieskov said, which regularly have hit civilian buildings like schools and hospitals, killing hundreds of non-combatants.

“We will have less time to react, more destruction, potentially more casualties, it will all weaken us very, very much,” he said.

Waltz told reporters Wednesday morning that the U.S. “had taken a step back” and that the administration was reviewing all aspects of its intelligence relationship with Ukraine.

“I think we’re going to see movement in very short order,” he said.

Additional reporting by Mike Stone and Anastasiia Malenko in Kyiv, Disha Mishra in Bengaluru and Washington bureau.