US ban on intelligence sharing with Ukraine causes significant losses among Ukrainians, Time says
Pravda Ukraine
Time has reported that the US decision earlier this week to suspend the transfer of military intelligence to Ukraine has helped Russia advance along a critical part of the front line, leading to the deaths of many Ukrainian soldiers in recent days.
Source: Time, citing five senior Western and Ukrainian officials and military officers
Details: “As a result of this pause, there are hundreds of dead Ukrainians,” one of the officers told Time in an interview in Kyiv on Friday, asking not to be named.
“The biggest problem is morale. It’s really causing an advantage for the enemy on the front line,” he added, because the Ukrainian Armed Forces are forced to fight without some of the best weapons systems, not because of Russian attacks, but because of the US attitude.
The media outlet writes that this has had the most acute impact on Ukrainians in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, where the armed forces are trying to hold on to a strip of territory they seized during an offensive last August.
Quote: “President Zelenskyy sees that region as a critical source of leverage in any future peace talks with the Russians. His aim is to trade parts of the Kursk area for Ukrainian land that Russia has occupied.”
More details: However, after the US stopped sharing intelligence, the Russians advanced rapidly in Kursk Oblast in an attempt to cut Ukrainian supply lines to the region, according to military officers and fresh battle maps created by Deep State, an open-source intelligence outlet.
A source in the Zelenskyy government confirmed that operations in Kursk Oblast have been hit hardest by the loss of access to US intelligence. Ukrainians have lost the ability to detect the approach of Russian bombers and other aircraft as they take off in Russia. As a result, Ukraine has less time to warn civilians and the military of the risk of an impending airstrike or missile.
The loss of US intelligence has also impaired the ability of Ukrainian forces to conduct long- and medium-range strikes against Russian targets.
These capabilities are now paralysed without access to information from US satellites.
Background:
- On 4 March, it became known that Trump had decided to suspend all military aid to Ukraine, including that which was already on its way.
- On 5 March, it was revealed that intelligence sharing, including that related to Russian missile launches, had also stopped.
- Commenting on the suspension of aid supplies to Ukraine, Trump said he “wants to stop the deaths”.
- On 7 March, CNN stated that the United States continued to share intelligence with Ukraine that could help its troops defend themselves rather than attack the Russian occupiers.
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