President Donald Trump’s decision to pause intelligence assistance to Ukraine will hamper the country’s war effort — and damage Washington’s relations with other intelligence partners — but will not cripple Kyiv’s fight against Russian forces, former intelligence officials say.
Ukraine has other partners in Europe, including the United Kingdom, that can provide battlefield and other intelligence to Kyiv, though there will be a gap that can’t be entirely filled, former intelligence officers with knowledge of the matter said. But they noted that the longer the pause, the more Ukraine will face complications.
U.S. spy agencies provide sophisticated surveillance imagery and eavesdropping intelligence that helps Ukraine anticipate Russian aerial and ground attacks, enables Kyiv to track and target Russian forces, and assists Ukraine’s espionage efforts, according to former intelligence officials.
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, condemned the suspension of intelligence help for Ukraine, saying it has saved the lives of Ukrainian troops and civilians.
“The pause on providing materiel to Ukraine against Putin’s aggression is unconscionable on its own, but the idea that we will now withhold life-saving intelligence from Ukrainians who are fighting and dying is unforgivable,” Himes said in a statement. “Any pause in intelligence sharing must end immediately.”
Apart from the impact on Ukraine’s battlefield, the decision to suspend intelligence cooperation — and to announce it publicly — will send shock waves among America’s intelligence partners around the world, former intelligence officers said.
“The signal it sends is atrocious,” said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior CIA officer. “It’s a signal to the rest of the world that the U.S. is not a dependable ally.”
In the past, intelligence cooperation has tended to continue uninterruptedly between the U.S. and its partners, even at times of serious friction among political leaders. But the Trump administration appears to have broken with that tradition, using intelligence as a political tool, according to Polymeropoulos and other former intelligence officers.
John Sipher, who served for 28 years in the CIA’s clandestine service, called the move “foolhardy” and damaging to America’s reputation among other spy agencies.
“The decision to stop intelligence assistance is foolhardy and ill-considered. Good intelligence cooperation should be kept secret and outside the vagaries of politics,” Sipher said. “It is the last place to make a public stand, especially when there are so many other ways to pressure a partner.”
Both CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said on Wednesday the administration had paused military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine after a tense public exchange last week in the Oval Office between Trump and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The White House had previously announced a suspension in military aid but did not initially specify a pause in intelligence sharing with Kyiv. The administration said it had opted to suspend the assistance until Ukraine’s government showed it was ready to pursue peace negotiations.
Ratcliffe said on Fox Business that he expected the pause to be lifted soon based on Zelenskyy’s statement Tuesday expressing a readiness to enter into peace negotiations with Russia and to back a proposed agreement that would grant the United States a share in the rights to the country’s mineral wealth. The CIA director suggested the suspension of military and intelligence aid had the intended effect on Kyiv’s calculations.
Ratcliffe said: “President Zelenskyy put out a statement saying, ‘I’m ready for peace and I want Donald Trump’s leadership to bring about that peace.’”
He added: “So I think on the military front and intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen will go away and 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.”
Western governments once regarded Ukraine’s intelligence services as unreliable and riddled with Russian-backed agents. But in 2014, after mass street protests forced the pro-Kremlin then-president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, to flee to Russia, the Ukrainian government and the CIA worked to build new intelligence services.
Ukraine shared highly valuable information on Russia with the Americans, and U.S. personnel trained a new generation of Ukrainian spies and commandos. That cooperation intensified after Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago, former intelligence officers said.
The United Kingdom’s intelligence service, MI6, and military have also closely collaborated with Ukraine over the past decade, former officials say.
Ukraine’s intelligence services are now highly capable and have demonstrated the ability to stage drone strikes and assassinations deep inside Russia, targeting weapons factories, railways and oil facilities.
