The United States has stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine, less than two days after announcing Washington was suspending military aid to its former ally.
“We have taken a step back and are pausing and reviewing all aspects of this relationship,” said National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, speaking to reporters outside the White House Wednesday.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe, in an interview on Fox Business, confirmed that President Donald Trump had ordered a halt to intelligence cooperation, as well as military aid.
The Trump administration’s eagerness to blow up relations with America’s erstwhile ally over a mineral-extraction deal highlights the reality that there is no actual U.S. peace plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine — only an effort to secure economic advantage over a nation devastated by war through the withholding of critical aid.
American intelligence capabilities — particularly electronic intercepts, signals intelligence, and real-time imagery — cannot be easily replicated. The loss of access to this information will be keenly felt in Kyiv.
“Intelligence being stopped is a much bigger deal than the Americans stopping weapons and ammo deliveries,” Franz-Stefan Gady, the founder of independent defense research firm Gady Consulting and an associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, tells Rolling Stone. “It could be temporary, but I think the damage is already being done.”
The Ukrainian military particularly relies on U.S. intelligence for tactical targeting, Gady says, such as intercepting units that are on the move, hitting temporary command posts, or striking staging areas where Russians are forming for offensive operations.
“Ultimately, the U.S. decision will cost more Ukrainian lives,” Gady notes.
Ukraine has relied on support from Washington and other democratic allies to stave off Russia’s invasion, which began just over three years ago. European nations have provided about $142 billion in financial support, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research organization which tracks aid to Ukraine. Meanwhile, the United States has provided about $123 billion, more than half of which was military assistance in the form of weaponry, ammunition, and intelligence support — dwarfing any other source of direct military aid.
Although Trump and key members of his inner circle have long signaled their intention to walk away from Ukraine, the speed with which Washington has conducted a complete turnaround in policy is dizzying.
This was evidenced in a disastrous meeting last week that was supposed to showcase the signing of a resource-extraction deal intended to give the United States access to key minerals in Ukraine, such as rare-earth minerals used in batteries and various defense applications.
Instead, Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance delivered a televised lashing to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office before the assembled international press corps.
Zelensky was then unceremoniously booted from the White House, with the resource deal unsigned, amid demands that he apologize to Trump.
On Tuesday, Zelensky responded with a carefully worded social media post aimed at placating his irate counterpart — and putting the onus on the American president to deliver on his rhetoric of overseeing a peace deal that protects Ukraine’s sovereignty.
“Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts,” Zelensky wrote.
Zelensky also said he was still ready to sign the resource deal.
Waltz, speaking outside the White House, said conversations with Kyiv were ongoing “just in the last 24 hours since the public statement from Zelensky.”
“I think we’re going to see movement in very short order,” he added.
Other members of Trump’s cabinet, however, have implied that the original agreement is no longer adequate. When asked if the deal was still on the table, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told one reporter: “Not at present.”
The White House does not yet appear to have officially responded to Zelensky’s message, but Trump did reference it in his joint address to Congress on Tuesday night.
“Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible,” Trump said.
The move to end intelligence-sharing with Ukraine is part of a broader shift in American foreign policy under Trump, who wants to force Kyiv’s capitulation to Moscow. Support for Ukraine in its ongoing resistance to Russia’s full-scale invasion is a barrier to Trump’s ambitions to normalize relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and reduce Washington’s commitments to its traditional allies in Europe.
The broadside in the Oval Office last week came as a shock to European leaders, who had continued to hope that the U.S. under Trump would make a good-faith effort to secure a peace deal advantageous to Ukraine and Europe more generally. The announcement of the suspension of aid on Monday reinforced that this was more than a minor disagreement between Trump and Zelensky.
Now, Europe is awakening to the reality that they are on their own.
“We are living in the most momentous and dangerous of times,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday, announcing a proposal for a $160 billion pan-European fund to pay for air defenses, drones, and other critical military items, saying that the eventual amount will reach $800 billion.
While Trump can unilaterally cut off U.S. aid to Ukraine and abandon it to its fate — much to the dismay of American allies around the world — he cannot actually force Ukrainians to stop defending themselves against Russia.
Nor can he force Putin to withdraw his forces from Ukraine. So far, the Trump administration has not publicly demanded any concessions from Moscow as it works to restore ties. It has, however, already signaled its willingness to make concessions to Putin — taking NATO membership for Ukraine off the table, saying Kyiv would have to concede territory, floating economic partnerships with Moscow, and permitting an expanded Russian diplomatic mission to Washington.
Trump obliquely referred to this process before Congress, saying that “serious discussions with Russia” were ongoing, and adding that he had “received strong signals that they are ready for peace.”
“Wouldn’t that be beautiful? It’s time to stop this madness. It’s time to halt the killing. It’s time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides,” Trump said.
In the meantime, Russian drones and missiles continue to bombard Ukrainian cities nightly. The bulk of these are intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses. But some get through. Ukrainians awake each day to the night’s grim tally of destruction and casualties. The suspension of U.S. aid is sure to increase the carnage.
“Ukraine relies heavily on U.S. Patriot systems for its air defense umbrella to protect against Russian missile strikes against Ukraine’s rear areas,” the Institute for the Study of War notes. “The shortage and eventual lack of Patriot missiles is likely to have severe impacts on the safety of Ukraine’s critical, industrial, and civilian infrastructure.”
Ukraine’s military situation is grim. While its defensive lines are holding and it consistently inflicts greater casualties on Russia than it suffers itself, the numbers are not in its favor and it continues to lose ground.
“It looks like [Trump] is pushing us toward capitulation,” Oleksandr Merezhko, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, told Reuters when asked about the suspension of aid.
While Ukraine is not on the verge of defeat, the defense analyst Gady notes, the overall trend is still negative. The suspension of American aid will affect Ukrainian morale.
“The message is that you cannot rely on the United States in this war any longer to help you beat back Russian aggression,” he says.
“Roosevelt and Churchill are turning in their graves,” wrote Ukrainian activist Yuri Kasyanov on his Telegram channel. “America has finally switched to the side of global evil.”
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