Luke Harding and Dan Sabbagh – The Guardian March 5, 2025
The US has stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine after Donald Trump’s suspension of military aid on Monday, in another serious blow to Kyiv in the war with Russia.
White House officials indicated that both bans could be lifted if peace talks make progress.
Ukrainian officials suggested the US would no longer provide information about targets inside Russia, hindering Ukraine’s ability to carry out effective long-range drone strikes.
This would also leave Ukraine in the dark over the movements of Russian strategic bomber aircraft and the launches of ballistic missiles.
There were conflicting reports about whether the shut-off covered the activities of Russia’s army in occupied areas of Ukraine.
One source told the Guardian that the US had “completely stopped” providing intelligence, including to Ukraine’s military and domestic security agencies. They said this would have a “very bad impact” on the fight against Russia.
The White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said Trump would consider restoring aid to Ukraine if peace talks were arranged and confidence-building measures taken. Discussions were ongoing with Ukraine over a date and place for talks, he told Fox News.
Speaking on Wednesday in his nightly address Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there had been “positive movement” in cooperation with the US. Results were expected next week involving a future meeting between the two sides, he added. On Thursday, Zelenskyy will join 27 EU leaders as they hold emergency talks in Brussels to agree ways to quickly increase their military budgets.
Ukraine’s president is seeking to repair relations with the US after his acrimonious meeting on Friday with Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, during which Trump publicly berated Zelenskyy and accused him of not wanting a deal with Russia.
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy wrote a conciliatory letter. It said he was committed to negotiations and ready to work with America under Trump’s “strong leadership”.
In a speech to Congress on Tuesday night, Trump called the letter “important” and said: “I appreciate that he sent this letter … Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?”
Waltz described the message on Wednesday as a “good, positive first step”. He said: “We’re already talking about confidence-building measures that we’ll then take to the Russians and test that side.” If the negotiations were “nailed down”, Trump would “take a hard look at lifting this pause”, Waltz said.
Ukrainian commentators expressed scepticism that a deal could be easily and swiftly reached. They pointed out that the White House had so far asked no concessions of Russia and appeared willing to accept Vladimir Putin’s demands undiluted.
Putin has called on Ukraine to give up territory, reduce the size of its military and accept “neutrality” under a new government. Last week Zelenskyy said Ukraine needed security guarantees before it could sign a deal – something an infuriated Trump categorically ruled out.
Speaking to Fox, the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, confirmed the intelligence freeze. He expressed confidence that the “pause” on the “intelligence and military front” was temporary and would “go away”. He added: “I think we’ll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine as we have, to push back on the aggression that’s there.”
Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said they could not comment on intelligence matters. They said the UK had been clear it would do everything it could to put Ukraine in the strongest position.
Experts said the impact of US restrictions on intelligence sharing would depend partly on what precisely had been stopped, and they emphasised that Kyiv was already more capable than Washington appreciated.
One western expert familiar with Ukraine’s conduct of the war said Kyiv already made heavy use of open-source and human intelligence to identify Russian targets and was not particularly dependent on the US for targeting information.
Giving an example, the person said “oil refineries don’t move”, citing a frequent target of Ukrainian long range-drone attacks. “Donald Trump might be surprised to find that when he pulls the levers they have little impact,” they added.
The restrictions would not prevent the UK and other countries from carrying on as before. Wider restrictions on intelligence sharing, such as refusing to share intercepts that provide clues as to Russian strategic intentions or military plans, would have a greater effect.
In February 2022, US intelligence told Ukraine that Russia was trying to seizure Hostomel airport north-west of Kyiv. The location’s defences were reinforced. Russia was never able to securely capture the airstrip, which it had intended to use to fly in large numbers of troops to take control of the Ukrainian capital.
A Ukrainian defence official acknowledged that a cut-off would be damaging. “We need satellite data to carry out deep strikes. It enables us to identify [Russian] targets and to guide our drones,” he said.
As part of his attempt to move on from the Oval Office row, Zelenskyy has offered to sign a minerals deal with the US. Trump has described the agreement as an economic backstop. The presence of US workers on the ground in Ukraine would deter Russia from attack, he argues.
A senior official in Kyiv said Ukraine was aware of its precarious position and doing everything it could to fix relations with the US. However, some Ukrainian observers believe Ukrainian concessions will not work and think Washington has definitively swapped sides in the war and is actively helping the Kremlin.
The journalist Kristina Berdynskykh wrote that Trump’s team was humiliating and threatening Ukraine while not applying any pressure to Putin. “Now every day there is some bad news for Ukraine from the US. And so far, there is no bad news for Russia, but the opposite,” she said.
Since US and Russian negotiators began peace talks in Saudi Arabia, the Kremlin has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid and civilian infrastructure. It sent a record 267 drones on the third anniversary last month of its full-scale invasion. Another 181 were launched on Wednesday, together with three missiles. A 73-year-old man was killed in the Odesa region and 20 private houses were damaged.
I think Trump has given a lesson to everybody who must deal with him, because he’s shown them all what he can do to an upstart who should have been a bit more humble. Zelensky said Ukraine had been alone these past three years and could win against Russia. Now he has no US aid and can prove it. Or not.
How many times must Russia wipe out another Ukrainian army before they face reality??
Russia has destroyed 3 Ukrainian armies. Now it’s on its fourth & last! LOL!
The Jew-Ruled Limeys & west are finished. They couldn’t do more if they had to. It’s absurd.
Russia would just continue crushing the west like a rotten grape.
Tusk states that Europe /European Nazi NATO can win ANY kind of war with Russia.
Of course, he’s a Nazi, and off his trolley. Since Trump’s arrival in the White House, all the Europeans have done is spew hateful war mongering rhetoric. Russia won’t invade Europe, and the only circumstance this might happen, is if the rail route to Kaliningrad is cut off.
One must wonder what kind of sherbet Tusk is getting from Zelensky, or would it be Zs dealer MI6?
The Russians could destroy every single power, and decision making center in Europe, and the UK, before the Nazis knew they’d been hit.
I’d always held the view that CCCs (City Crime Cartels) believe that controlling Russian resources was the key to their second wave of Imperialist success, but now, I also believe that EU/NATO Nazi elites also believe in this idea, this policy, and of course, given that most European leaders are WW2 MI6 legacy leaders, they are in cahoots with MI6, and I don’t think Trump gets this, because Trump knows the bear can’t be cracked without a nuclear WW3, it’s not worth it. Amerika is focused on the Middle East and China, and note what the Chinese foreign ministry just said. They are ready for any kind of war with Amerika.
You see, Trump doesn’t understand that the key to controlling China, the BRICS and wannabes, is the breakup of Russia and controlling it’s resources.
The thing is, Trump says things, and then flip flops. Nothing is real.
Stop reading when I saw it was from the Far Left Limp wristed Faggots at the Guardian that HATE WHITE MALES!!
Trump does not care about Europe, he needs all his money and military for his plan is to combine Greenland, Canada, USA and south America. This gives them control of all the minerals, rare minerals and farmland they will ever need. They just have to get rid of all the south America people. So, expect a sickness (the South American disease) to arrive soon. One could expect it to be caried by (billy goat) mosquitoes.
Oddly enough those mosquitoes were also released in Australia,
National Trust attacked for hiking up prices while ‘shoving woke ideology down throats’ in scathing GB News story
National Trust members have been hit with a 25 per cent price hike as the organisation faces criticism over declining numbers, the present pro woke LBGT perversion policy is making folk leave
An annual adult membership now costs £96.20, up from £76.80 in 2022.
A lifetime family membership has risen to £3,025 from £2,865.
The increases, which took effect on 1 March, come as the Trust grapples with falling membership and volunteer numbers.
Zewditu Gebreyohanes from the Prosperity Institute, who are funded by Legatum, an investor in GB News’s holding company, has blasted the price increase as coming at a “particularly odd time” for the organisation, the public have to put up with Kier Starmer, and his threats of a war with russia and his support of israeli terrorism
Speaking on GB News, she highlighted “high levels of dissatisfaction” with the current leadership
and wants ” normal people ” in charge
British defence jobs and skills will keep us safe, says the PM.
So he’d better buy the UK’s jet, not the US one
Kier Starmer has negotiated with Trump that if he gets us into war with russia
he and his family can fly to safety in washington
Not since Winston Churchill had a secret bunker built in the canadian rockies in ww 2
have we witnessed such cowardice
Rixon please remove cark jones