The C.I.A. director John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday that intelligence sharing with Ukraine had been paused alongside military aid to pressure its government to cooperate with the Trump administration’s plans to end the country’s war with Russia.
A U.S. official said the pause stopped all military targeting information from being shared with Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian official said the pause in sharing would make strikes on Russian forces more difficult, but Kyiv’s military had access to other satellite imagery.
The pause also affected some intelligence about advance warning of drone and missile strikes that Russia has been carrying out against military and civilian targets, according to a person briefed on the pause.
“Everything that came from the Defense Department has stopped,” said Valeriy Kondratiuk, the former head of HUR, one of Ukraine’s intelligence services. “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 C.I.A. has a sizable presence in the country, where it has working alongside the Ukrainians to help with targeting.
Some of the officers have been deployed to Ukrainian bases, where they review lists of potential Russian targets that the Ukrainians are preparing to strike, comparing the information that the Ukrainians have with U.S. intelligence to ensure that it is accurate.
The C.I.A. has also helped the Ukrainians build at least three secret signals-intelligence collection bases, which the Ukrainians use to intercept Russian communications, reducing their dependence on the United States for intelligence.
Too many words, should be simplified to : U.S. has paused intelligence.