US intelligence has warned Ukraine that it will immediately cease data sharing in event of further strikes on Russian oil refineries, - Washington Post
US intelligence has warned the Ukrainian embassy in Washington to immediately halt the exchange of intelligence if Kyiv continues to carry out strikes on Russian energy facilities.
This is reported in a Washington Post article citing an informed source, according to Censor.NET.
The threat remains
According to the publication, the US threatened to withhold intelligence from Ukraine on Monday. US intelligence agencies warned the Ukrainian embassy in Washington that, in the event of further strikes on Russian energy facilities, they would immediately cease all intelligence sharing.
According to the newspaper’s source, the exchange has not been halted – at least not entirely – but the threat remains. He also spoke of the scale of the warnings.
"The warnings were so widespread that anyone with a Ukrainian-sounding last name got a call," the source told the publication.
According to him, the type of missile that struck Kyiv had previously evaded the early warning systems, but not recently.
Statements by Zelenskyy and Trump
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy confirmed that the Ukrainian military had received warnings and threats regarding the sharing of intelligence, but that these had not yet been acted upon. Trump told journalists on Tuesday that the sharing of intelligence would continue.
"We are helping them, and we are sharing intel. We want the war to end," said the US president.
An EU diplomat in Kyiv, speaking to the WP, suggested that both scenarios are possible: Zelenskyy may be keen to discuss halting the exchange, whilst Trump may be seeking to put pressure on him. He also pointed out that Ukrainian radars have previously failed to detect ballistic strikes.
Starlink restrictions
In addition to the intelligence exchange, Ukraine was faced with Starlink restrictions without warning. The President’s adviser on military technology, Serhii Beskrestnov, confirmed that SpaceX had imposed speed limits on terminals in motion.
Serhii Sternenko suggested that SpaceX might have done so at the request of the Trump administration, and later reported that the speed had been restricted even further. An official from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence told the WP that the ministry does not yet know whether this is a policy change or a technical limitation.
According to military sources, the shutdown of Starshield disrupted air defence operations and paralysed strike drones targeting Russian logistics and command posts.
The situation regarding US intelligence
- On 10 October, the American publication Axios reported that Donald Trump’s representatives, Stephen Witkoff and Jared Kushner, may have threatened to halt the sharing of intelligence due to Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries. However, Witkoff denied reports of such threats.
- On the evening of 12 October, the Russians attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles; explosions were heard before the air-raid siren was sounded. The missiles struck civilian infrastructure.
- On 13 October, Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that the previous day, during the strike involving five ballistic missiles on Kyiv, Ukraine had not received any intelligence from its partners regarding the launches of the targets.
- At the same time, Ukraine’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Andrii Sybiha, assured that Ukraine continues to receive US intelligence.
