President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is set to meet with Prime Minister Andy Burnham of Britain in London on Wednesday, following his statement that Ukraine received “no early warning from our partners” about a Russian missile attack against Kyiv. The comment has raised urgent questions about whether the United States has stopped or cut back on sharing critical intelligence with Ukraine and how European countries might fill any gap. Russia struck Ukraine’s energy infrastructure heavily overnight, causing significant damage to 26 power-grid facilities and four oil and gas facilities. At least 600,000 people were left without power, according to officials in Ukraine. It is not clear if there has been any change to the United States’ approach. A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ignat, said on Wednesday that Ukraine had received no warning for one strike but did get warning for the “next three waves of attacks.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump denied that intelligence sharing had stopped. “We are helping them, and we are sharing intel,” he said. Verbal clashes between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky in recent days have frayed nerves, raising concern about how Ukraine could continue to defend itself against Russia if it were to lose intelligence from the United States. Britain has a sophisticated intelligence operation and works with the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as part of the Five Eyes alliance. However, America’s capabilities dwarf the others and would be particularly hard for Ukraine to lose, according to security officials.
“The precision, detail and timeliness of intelligence from the United States is noteworthy,” Robert B. Murrett, the former director of the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, said in an interview on Wednesday. The United States would typically share information about targets inside Russia, said Murrett, a retired Navy vice admiral who now teaches at Syracuse University. Other European countries, including Poland and the Baltic States, also share “a fair amount of intelligence” with Ukraine, he added. Mr. Murrett doubted that the U.S. intelligence community would pull its support from Ukraine. “The current leadership of the United States intelligence community and our allies is very anti-Russian,” he said. “That’s not to say the White House couldn’t overrule them,” he continued. “But the principal leadership of the U.S. intelligence community does not have a warm place in their hearts for Putin and his leadership in the Kremlin.”
In London, Mr. Burnham is expected to tell Mr. Zelensky that Britain will draw up plans for imposing harsher sanctions on Russia and will accelerate military and economic support, including a new batch of air-defense missiles that have been effective against Russian drones. “Our rock-solid support to Ukraine is vital for keeping us safe here in the U.K. and ensuring those on the front lines have the equipment they need to push back Russia,” Mr. Burnham said, according to a statement released by 10 Downing Street.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing