As the conflict in Ukraine has evolved, intelligence agencies have adjusted their approach to ensure officials have flexibility “to share detailed, timely intelligence with the Ukrainians,” a U.S. intelligence official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the handling of classified material.
Biden administration officials have said they have been giving Ukraine the most relevant information at any given moment. Still, the administration has been reluctant to help the Ukrainians target Russian forces in Russia, and Republican lawmakers said that concern by the administration had extended to Russian forces in Crimea and the Donbas.
The stepped-up intelligence sharing was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. officials have defended their intelligence sharing with Ukraine. On Tuesday, Kathleen H. Hicks, the deputy secretary of defense, said that “the intelligence support that we have provided has been vital.” And she said the information given to Ukraine had been “high-end.”
Other officials said that as the Russian military shifted its strategy away from the attack on Kyiv to reinforcing the operations in the Donbas, U.S. intelligence agencies began to look at whether their guidance on what information could be shared needed to be expanded.
Republicans have been critical of the Pentagon and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, saying they have failed to provide enough information to Ukraine about the Russian forces and separatist groups that have been stationed in parts of Ukraine since 2014 or 2015.
In a letter released on Monday, Senate Republicans said they were concerned that not enough was being done to share critical intelligence with Ukrainians. The letter, from Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and others, specifically referred to providing intelligence to the Ukrainians to help them “retake every inch of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, which includes Crimea and the Donbas.”
Helene Cooper contributed reporting.