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CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in an interview Wednesday that US President Donald Trump asked for a pause on intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, alongside the pause on military aid. The move could significantly affect Kyiv’s ability to target Russian troops and military infrastructure.
A Ukrainian official speaking to Sky News said the pause affects all intelligence -sharing, and not just information related to attacks inside Russia.
“Trump had a real question about whether President Zelenskyy was committed to the peace process, and he said, let’s pause,” Ratcliffe told Fox Business.
The CIA director said he believed that an apparent thaw in tensions between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since their disastrous Friday meeting — including a note from Zelenskyy that Trump appeared to receive well — indicated that the measures could be short-lived: “The pause that allowed that to happen, I think will go away.”
National security adviser Mike Waltz said Wednesday that Washington “had taken a step back,” and that the Trump administration was “reviewing all aspects” of its intelligence-sharing with Ukraine.
The countries on Wednesday agreed to come back to the table for talks, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff said, adding that a meeting was scheduled “in the near future.”
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US intelligence has been “essential” for Ukraine’s ability to successfully strike targets inside Russia, The Financial Times wrote. The outlet was the first to report the pause.
The policy change has put significant pressure on Kyiv to enter peace negotiations on Trump’s terms, as well as to strike a mineral deal with the US. Waltz said he believed that on both, “we’re going to see movement in very short order.”
The New York Times and other outlets reported that some officials appeared to differ on whether the US was continuing to share some intelligence with Ukraine, but Ratcliffe’s comments indicate that the CIA, at least, could stop sending intel to Kyiv.