WASHINGTON: CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday that intelligence sharing with Ukraine had been paused alongside military aid to pressure its government to cooperate with the Trump administration‘s plans to end the country’s war with Russia.
Speaking on Fox Business, Ratcliffe applauded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy‘s statement Tuesday praising President Donald Trump and insisting that he supported peace with Russia. Ratcliffe said he thought intelligence sharing would resume.
“President Zelenskyy put out a statement that said, ‘I am ready for peace, and I want President Donald Trump’s leadership to bring about that peace,'” Ratcliffe said. “And so I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think 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.”
His remarks were echoed by Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, who told reporters at the White House that the United States had “taken a step back” and was “pausing and reviewing all aspects of this relationship.”
A U.S. official said the pause stopped all military targeting information from being shared with Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian official said the pause in sharing would make strikes on Russian forces more difficult, but Ukraine’s military had access to other satellite imagery.
The pause also affected some intelligence about advance warning of drone and missile strikes that Russia has been carrying out against military and civilian targets, according to a person briefed on the pause.
“Everything that came from the Defense Department has stopped,” said Valeriy Kondratiuk, the former head of HUR, one of Ukraine’s intelligence services. “This mostly concerns the exchange of imagery. This isn’t critical because European companies have their own satellites, but not all these are focused on military dislocation and movements, which is important.”
The CIA has a sizable presence in the country, where it was working alongside the Ukrainians to help with targeting.
Some of the officers have been deployed to Ukrainian bases, where they review lists of potential Russian targets that the Ukrainians are preparing to strike, comparing the information that the Ukrainians have with U.S. intelligence to ensure that it is accurate.
The CIA has also helped the Ukrainians build at least three secret signals-intelligence collection bases, which the Ukrainians use to intercept Russian communications, reducing their dependence on the United States for intelligence.
Some U.S. officials said the hope was that any pause in intelligence sharing would be very short, with little practical impact. A senior Trump administration official said the initial plan was to pause military and intelligence sharing for a week or two as part of the campaign to pressure Zelenskyy.
It was not clear whether the Ukrainian president’s statement Tuesday would be enough to restart the aid. While Trump praised it and Zelenskyy in his address to Congress that evening, some Trump administration officials want the Ukrainian president to remove officials from his government whom the White House sees as hostile to negotiations with the Russians. The Trump administration also wants Zelenskyy to sign a deal giving the United States access to mineral rights in Ukraine.
While the Trump administration has steadily increased pressure on Ukraine, it has not done so to Russia to halt its attacks. The Russian military has continued to bombard Ukrainian cities daily.
Ratcliffe said Wednesday that Trump had asked for a pause on intelligence sharing. And his comments suggested that the CIA had put at least some of its intelligence sharing with Ukraine on hold for a short time. Waltz said he had spoken with his Ukrainian counterpart and predicted “movement in very short order.”
Speaking earlier on Fox News, Waltz said if Ukraine signaled that it was ready to negotiate a ceasefire, the pause would be lifted.
“I think if we can nail down these negotiations and move toward these negotiations and, in fact, put some confidence-building measures on the table, then the president will take a hard look at lifting this pause,” Waltz said.
Democrats attacked the decision to pause the intelligence assistance. Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the intelligence sharing between the U.S. and Ukraine had saved lives of civilians and soldiers.
“The pause on providing matériel to Ukraine against Putin’s aggression is unconscionable on its own, but the idea that we will now withhold lifesaving intelligence from Ukrainians who are fighting and dying is unforgivable,” Himes said. “Any pause in intelligence sharing must end immediately.”
Trump administration officials have said the pauses were a warning to the Ukrainians of the consequences if they did not cooperate with Trump’s peace plan. The details of those plans remain unclear. Trump has spoken approvingly of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, and his aides have endorsed elements of the country’s ideas for ending the war.
But European countries are trying to develop their own plan that could win over both Trump and Zelenskyy.
In a statement Wednesday, U.S. European Command said it had received an order to pause security assistance to the Ukrainian military.
A spokesperson for the command said delivery of military equipment that had been promised as part of Presidential Drawdown Authority packages would be suspended. Matériel in transit was halted, and matériel already in Ukraine was moved to secure facilities, the statement said.