The US president reportedly said leaks about alleged intelligence sharing with Ukraine must stop, as they are counterproductive and “distract” from the objective.
RT – US President Joe Biden has told senior intelligence officials that leaks about alleged intelligence sharing with Ukraine must stop as they “distract” from Washington’s objective in the crisis, NBC News reported on Friday.
During the phone conversation with CIA Director William Burns, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Biden praised the work of the intelligence services but emphasized that the disclosures are counterproductive and must cease, the outlet said. , citing two unnamed government officials.
None of the organizations involved has commented on the matter.
The NBC report came a day after several American media outlets claimed that US-provided data allegedly allowed Ukrainian forces to attack the Russian Black Sea flagship ‘Moskva’ off the coast of Odessa last month. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby denied these reports, saying “the Ukrainians have their own intelligence capabilities to track and attack Russian ships, as they did in this case.” Russia insists its missile cruiser was not attacked but sank on April 14 after a fire on board caused the ammunition to explode.
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On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that the US allegedly provided Kiev with intelligence data that allowed the Ukrainian military to target and kill many Russian generals. This report was rejected by Kirby, who at the same time acknowledged that sharing “battlefield intelligence to help Ukraine defend its country” was part of the assistance provided by Washington to Kiev.
Last week, NBC said the US provided Ukraine with “near real-time” data that allegedly helped bring down a Russian transport plane carrying “hundreds of soldiers”. Commenting on this report, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council stated only that the US was “regularly providing detailed and timely information to Ukrainians on the battlefield to help them defend their country against Russian aggression and will continue to do so.” do it. ”
On May 5, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russian officials know that the US, UK and NATO “on an ongoing basis” transmit intelligence and other data to Kiev.
“Along with the flow of weapons that these same countries and alliances are sending to Ukraine, all these actions do not contribute to the speedy conclusion of the operation, but at the same time they are not able to prevent the achievement of the goals established during the special military operation. ,” Peskov said.
Several former US intelligence and government officials have taken to social media to urge the Biden administration to stop talking to the press about intelligence matters.
The Pentagon announced last week that the US has spent $4.3 billion supporting the Ukrainian military since 2021.
Russia has attacked its neighboring state after Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk accords, signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The Minsk Protocol, mediated by Germany and France, was designed to give breakaway regions a special status within the Ukrainian state.
Since then, the Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join NATO. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely spontaneous and denied claims it planned to retake the two republics by force.
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