US: Trump administration cuts off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine amid push for peace talks

President Donald Trump earlier in the week ordered the U.S. to suspend military aid to Kyiv’s fighters after his contentious meeting last week at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday that the U.S. had also, for the moment, ended sharing its intelligence with Kyiv, although it could be short-lived after Zelenskyy said his heated exchanges with Trump in the Oval Office had been “regrettable” and that Ukraine was ready for peace talks with Russia.

"I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause [that prompted Ukraine's president to respond] I think will go away," Ratcliffe told the Fox Business Network.

"I think we'll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine as we have to push back on the aggression that's there, but to put the world in a better place for these peace negotiations to move forward," he said.

Since the start of the war in 2022, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with significant intelligence, including critical information its military needs for targeting Russian forces.

Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. "had taken a step back" and that the administration was "reviewing all aspects" of its intelligence relationship with Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Waltz told CBS News that the U.S. is moving quickly to start peace negotiations to end the war and sign a mineral rights deal with Kyiv.

"I think we're going to see movement in very short order," Waltz said.

He said Trump officials will meet with Ukrainian officials as they conduct shuttle diplomacy with Russia.

"I have literally just been on the phone with my counterpart, the Ukrainian national security adviser, talking about times, locations, delegations," Waltz said.

In a speech to the U.S. Congress Tuesday night, Trump said he had received a letter from Zelenskyy in which the Ukrainian leader expressed willingness to start war-ending negotiations with Russia.

"Wouldn't that be beautiful?" Trump said in an address to the U.S. Congress. "It's time to stop this madness. It's time to halt the killing. It's time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides."

His description of the letter matched what Zelenskyy posted earlier in the day on social media, saying Ukraine was ready to negotiate “as soon as possible” and would “work under” Trump’s “strong leadership” to reach a peace deal.

Zelenskyy said his acrimonious encounter with Trump at the White House last Friday was “regrettable” and that he remains ready to sign a deal that would give the United States substantial, long-term rights to Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals needed for the American manufacture of technology products.

In a post on X, the Ukrainian leader said in a statement that his discussions with Trump and Vice President JD Vance “did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive.”

Trump and Vance, seated close to each other in the Oval Office, assailed Zelenskyy as being ungrateful for the more than $100 billion worth of munitions the United States has sent to Kyiv’s forces to fend off Moscow’s 2022 invasion, even though the Ukrainian leader had on numerous occasions thanked the U.S.

“We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence,” Zelenskyy said on Tuesday. “And we remember the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins,” an anti-tank missile weapons system. “We are grateful for this.”

“I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace,” Zelenskyy said. “None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians.”

Vance told VOA on Tuesday, “We do believe that it's in Russia's best interest, but also Ukraine and the United States's best interest, to bring this conflict to a close.”

Zelenskyy said the first stage of any truce in the fighting “could be the release of [Russian and Ukrainian] prisoners [each country is holding] and truce in the sky — ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure — and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same.”

“Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the U.S. to agree a strong final deal,” he said.

But reaching a peace deal could prove difficult. Ukraine has long demanded a restoration of its internationally recognized 2014 borders before Moscow unilaterally seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Overall, Russia now holds about a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including much of eastern Ukraine, and has vowed to not return any of it to the Kyiv government.

(Text courtesy: Voice Of Amercia/IBNS)