Egypt Daily News – The Director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, announced on Wednesday that the United States is halting intelligence cooperation with Ukraine amid tensions between the two countries following a dispute between their leaders at the White House. This move aims to pressure the Ukrainian government to cooperate with the Trump administration’s plans to end the war in the country with Russia.
Ratcliffe praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s statement on Tuesday, in which he “commended” President Trump and insisted that he supports peace with Russia. He added that intelligence sharing would resume, according to The New York Times.
Ratcliffe stated, “President Zelenskyy issued a statement saying: ‘I am ready for peace and want President Donald Trump’s leadership to achieve this peace.’ Therefore, I believe that on the military and intelligence fronts, the pause that occurred will be lifted, and I think we will work side by side with Ukraine as we have before to push back the aggression happening there.”
After Trump ordered the suspension of military aid yesterday, officials disagreed on whether the U.S. should continue intelligence sharing. One official said that all intelligence unrelated to the direct protection of Ukrainian forces had been suspended. Meanwhile, another official noted that this exception covered most intelligence sharing, meaning information was still flowing to Ukrainian forces.
Ratcliffe confirmed that Trump had requested the suspension of intelligence sharing. His comments indicate that the CIA had at least temporarily halted some intelligence cooperation with Ukraine.
