When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the United States provided Ukraine with intelligence on the timing and targets of Russian missile and bombings, allowing Ukraine to remove its aviation and air defense equipment from endangered areas, NBC News told former US officials.
This near-real-time exchange of intelligence also allowed Ukraine to shoot down a Russian transport plane with hundreds of soldiers in the Kiev area, and helped repel Russia’s attack on Hostomel airport near Kiev in the early days of the war.
Officials acknowledged that intelligence from the US intelligence agencies and the Pentagon was an important factor in helping Ukraine thwart Russia’s plans to occupy most of Ukraine.
“From the very beginning, we tried quite hard to share both strategic and operational intelligence with Ukraine. It was effective at both the tactical and strategic levels. There are examples where it can be said quite clearly that it is important,” he said. official.
“We regularly provide Ukrainians on the battlefield with detailed, timely information to help them defend their country against Russian aggression, and we will continue to do so,” a spokesman for the White House National Security Council said.
The former US intelligence official said that commercial satellite imagery and a lot of other information had been handed over to Ukraine, such as the location of certain Russian units.
Ukraine continues to relocate its air defense equipment and aviation almost daily, thanks to the support of US intelligence, which is one of the reasons why Russia has not been able to dominate the air over Ukraine.
“The Russian army is literally destroying empty fields where air defense equipment was once installed,” a U.S. official said.
U.S. officials acknowledged that this was a large-scale and unprecedented intelligence-sharing operation with a non-NATO partner country and that it had played a key role in Ukraine’s success in the war against Russia’s largest and best-supplied army.
The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is also devoting significant resources to gathering information to protect Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Russia wants to kill. The CIA is consulting with Ukrainians on “how best to move him, ensuring that he is not in one place with the entire chain of command.”
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