US halts intelligence support to Ukraine amid Trump-Zelensky row: Officials

The administration of US President Donald Trump has suspended Washington’s intelligence support to Kiev, amid tensions with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine over a proposed peace deal with Russia.

“We are pausing, assessing, looking at everything across our security relationship,” National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told CBS News in response to a question on intelligence-sharing with Kiev.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe also confirmed the “pause.”

It was not immediately clear to what extent the US had paused the intelligence sharing, but both officials suggested it may be short-lived after Zelensky’s recent remarks that the country was ready to negotiate to end the war.

“You saw the response that President Zelensky put out,” Ratcliffe said.

“So I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think will go away.”

The Trump administration had already announced a freeze in weapons deliveries to Ukraine, part of its efforts to pressure Kiev into a swift end to the war on Washington's terms. 

“We are having good talks on location for the next round of negotiations, on delegations, on substance,” Waltz said. 

“So, just in the last 24 hours since the public statement from Zelensky, and then the subsequent conversations, which I’m going to walk inside and continue, I think we’re going to see movement in very short order,” Waltz told reporters, as he spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart over the phone this morning.

CNN cited a US military official as saying that the US is now “offering fewer surveillance flights to the Ukrainians, as well as less satellite coverage.”

But underscoring the fluid nature of the situation, another US military official in the region said on Tuesday that American military contact with the Ukrainians, including some intelligence sharing, was “continuing.”

Trump’s halt on aid was seen by some US officials as a betrayal of Kiev. One former intelligence official, who remains in contact with old colleagues, said many US military and intelligence officers “feel we are abandoning our allies on the battlefield.”

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According to the Financial Times, the US accounts for about a third of the total military supplies to Ukraine.

The report said “America provides key elements of Ukraine’s armoury that cannot easily be replaced.”

“The US also provides critical military intelligence and weapons-targeting information that other NATO allies cannot match.”

The chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Oleksandr Merezhko, described Trump’s move as “unbelievable.”

“Cutting off military aid is too much.”

Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, said the pause in military aid to Ukraine could push the country to join a peace process.

“This would probably be the best contribution to the cause of peace,” Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, according to RIA Novosti.

Relations between the United States and Ukraine broke down dramatically in late February, when Trump and Vice President JD Vance engaged in a tense exchange with the Ukrainian president at the Oval Office.

On Tuesday, Zelensky expressed willingness in a letter to Trump to enter negotiations over the war, signaling an improvement in ties.

Since the Ukraine war began in February 2022, the US has provided Ukraine with nearly $86 billion in military assistance, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

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