CIA director confirms pause of U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine
U.S. has provided critical intelligence in fight against Russia
The U.S. has paused intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday, piling pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to co-operate with U.S. 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 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 previously 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."
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, U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance and Zelenskyy engaged in a heated confrontation before the world's media. The clash delayed the signing of a U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal.
But the deal got back on track and signing was expected to happen soon, a senior administration official said on Wednesday, after Zelenskyy took the advice of U.S. officials over the weekend. The Ukrainian leader, who told the U.S. officials he was still ready to sign the deal, issued a conciliatory statement that thanked Washington for its support and expressed regret for Friday's clash.
Sources said on Tuesday that Trump wanted to sign the minerals deal before his speech to Congress on Tuesday night. That didn't happen, but Trump referred to Zelenskyy's message during his address.
The signing is expected to be the first step in a longer negotiation process between Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia on ending the war, the senior administration official said.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington and Ukraine's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Several Democrats criticized the intelligence-sharing suspension. Sen. Mark Warner, the vice-chairman 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.
Europe scrambles to boost defence spending
European countries are scrambling to boost defence spending and maintain support for Ukraine. France and Britain are aiming to finalize, possibly within days, a peace plan to present to the U.S., diplomats said.
In his address to Congress on Tuesday night, 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'd been in "serious discussions with Russia" and had received strong signals it was 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's 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.
All of this has led some to question why the U.S. president has seemingly opened a door to Moscow, while distancing the U.S. from Ukraine, whose borders were the subject of an unprovoked invasion.
"I cannot understand, why in this war, the United States are putting pressure on Ukraine and not on Russia," said Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian lawmaker, who spoke to Times Radio about the impact of the U.S. pull-back on intelligence sharing.
Some experts said the 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," said Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at Ukraine's National Institute for Strategic Studies.
He said Kyiv relied on the U.S. for intelligence about developments inside Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine as well as Russian attacks on Ukraine. Those have regularly hit civilian buildings like schools and hospitals.
"We will have less time to react, more destruction, potentially more casualties, it will all weaken us very, very much," he said.
Before Trump returned to power in Washington, he'd claimed that he could end the war in 24 hours. Yet the conflict continues more than six weeks into his second term.
Meanwhile, a Russian missile smashed into a hotel in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih late on Wednesday, killing two people and injuring 29, many of them seriously, a municipal official said.
Twenty of those injured were in serious condition and rescue operations proceeded past midnight, Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city's military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine's Emergency Services said 14 people had been rescued from rubble at the hotel, which suffered heavy damage.
With files from CBC News