US cuts intelligence sharing as it piles pressure on Ukraine

Washington — The US has paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine, CIA director John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday, piling pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to co-operate with US President Donald Trump in convening peace talks with Russia.

The suspension, which could cost lives by hurting Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russian missile strikes, followed a halt this week to US 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 US support for Ukraine.

The pressure appears to have worked, with Trump on Tuesday saying he received a letter from Zelensky 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.

Restoring assistance

Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told another Fox programme 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 after a disastrous Oval Office meeting on Friday in which Trump and Zelensky engaged in a heated exchange before the world’s media. The clash delayed the signing of a Ukraine-US minerals deal.

Several Democrats lambasted the intelligence-sharing suspension. Senator Mark Warner, the vice chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said the “ill-advised decision” showed that Trump had given American power to Russia.

“Let me be clear: cutting off intelligence support to our Ukrainian partners will cost (Ukrainian) lives,” the Virginia Democrat said in a statement.

European countries are scrambling to boost defence spending and maintain support for Ukraine. France and Britain are aiming to finalise, possibly within days, a peace plan to present to the US, diplomats said.

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 US leader has demanded to repay the costs of US 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 US 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 US 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 US aides in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, from which Ukraine and its European allies were excluded.

Some experts said the US intelligence-sharing suspension would hurt Ukraine’s ability to strike Russian forces, which occupy about 20% 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 defences against Russian air and missile strikes, Bielieskov said, which regularly have hit civilian buildings such as schools and hospitals, killing hundreds of noncombatants.

“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 US “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. 

Update: March 5 2025
This story has been updated with new information.

Reuters