CIA stops sharing intelligence with Ukraine after Oval Office stoush

Washington: The United States has paused intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, CIA Director John Ratcliffe says, 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 hurt Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russian missile strikes, followed a halt this week to US military aid to Kyiv and 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.

Rescuers help wounded civilians in December after a Russian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.Credit: AP

The pressure appears to have worked, with Trump saying in his address to Congress on Wednesday (AEDT) he had received a letter from Zelensky in which the Ukrainian leader said he was willing to come to the negotiating table.

Zelensky also said overnight, hours after the CIA news broke, that there had been “positive movement” in co-operation with the US that could lead to another meeting between the two sides soon. His chief-of-staff, Andriy Yermak, had spoken with Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz.

US officials suggest the pause in intelligence sharing may be short-lived as relations between Zelensky and Trump improve, after their disastrous meeting in the Oval Office last Friday.

Ratcliffe said the pause in intelligence sharing came after that meeting, and Trump wanted to know that Zelensky was serious about peace.

CIA director pick John Ratcliffe said the pause may be shortlived.Credit: AP

“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.

Waltz told another Fox program that the president would consider restoring assistance to Kyiv if peace talks were arranged and unspecified confidence-building measures taken.

France and Britain are aiming to finalise a peace plan with Ukraine, possibly “in days”, to present to the US before possible talks in Washington, diplomats said overnight. The plan that would initially outline a short truce but also eventually include broader security guarantees.

Volodymyr Zelensky, US President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance during their explosive meeting in the Oval Office.Credit: Bloomberg

In the US, a source familiar with the intelligence-sharing situation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Trump administration had halted “everything” since Friday, 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.

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

In his address to Congress, Trump said Kyiv was ready to sign a deal to exploit Ukraine’s critical mineral deposits, which he 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.

It’s unclear whether the American suspension affects the intelligence sharing ties between Ukraine and other Western powers, including the Five Eyes alliance between the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman, Dave Pares, would not confirm whether the UK was still supplying Ukraine with intelligence from the United States.

He said Britain was “will do everything to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position across all aspects of our support, particularly around defence and security, and our position hasn’t changed.”

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 per cent 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,” Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies research fellow Mykola Bielieskov said.

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 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.

Reuters, AP

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