Here’s how Biden helps Zelensky also on intelligence
The new US aid plan for Ukraine has another component, which has gone unnoticed, dedicated to intelligence. The article by Giuseppe Gagliano
For the first time, the United States decided to send heavy weapons – including howitzers – to Ukraine on Wednesday 13 April to defend against Russia. A new step in Washington's commitment to Kiev that has not failed to be highlighted by the media.
But that is not all.
The new US aid plan for Ukraine – worth $ 800 million – has another component, which has gone much more unnoticed, dedicated to intelligence.
US President Joe Biden has pledged to pass more data collected by his intelligence services to Ukraine at a time when the Russian military seems ever closer to igniting the great battle for the Donbass. Joe Biden has even put the supply of weapons and intelligence on an equal footing.
But their real impact remains difficult to assess: the effects of timely intelligence are less visible than those of an anti-aircraft missile or anti-tank rockets. Furthermore, they are, by definition, doomed to travel behind the scenes, out of sight of the general public and the enemy.
Since the beginning of the war, the debate on the role of intelligence has mainly revolved around the "unprecedented" approach to the declassification of sensitive information. Since the early months of the Ukrainian crisis, the Biden administration has flooded the media with data – war risk assessment, satellite images of Russian troop mobilization – straight from the back kitchen of various American foreign intelligence offices (CIA, NSA , Defense Intelligence Agency).
The documents, usually reserved only for the eyes of allied governments, thus fueled the public debate.
Another indirect effect of this very public demonstration of Russian "secret" plans prior to the start of the invasion war may have been to create distrust between the Kremlin and Russian secret services. This multiplication of revelations may have given the impression of a Russian staff infiltrated by Western intelligence. This could be one of the reasons why the Russian secret services, although well known, seem not to have played a decisive role during this conflict: Vladimir Putin no longer wanted to listen to his spies.
The United States has never hidden that it has continued to transmit information to Kiev since the beginning of March, including geolocation information to trace Russian troops on the ground that would allow the Ukrainians to organize targeted elimination operations. A new doctrine has been developed in Washington that allows the American secret services to share data that will allow Kiev to have a very accurate picture of the Russian military system in place in the Donbass and Crimea.
The US administration therefore appears to have decided to provide imported data that allow the Ukrainian army to have a real-time picture of the movements of Russian troops.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/ecco-come-biden-aiuta-zelensky-anche-sullintelligence/ on Wed, 20 Apr 2022 07:23:08 +0000.