U.S. intelligence has helped Ukraine kill some of the 12 Russian generals who had died in the frontline.
Real-time U.S. battlefield intelligence reportedly includes locations of the Russian military’s frequently changing mobile headquarters and anticipated troop movements taken from assessments of Russia’s secret battle plan.
Unnamed officials interviewed by the publication declined to say how many Russian generals have been killed with the help of U.S. intelligence or how they have acquired information on Russian troop headquarters. U.S. intelligence agencies are known to have used classified and commercial satellites to trace Russian troop movements in Ukraine.
American intelligence was reportedly not used in a strike over the weekend on a location in eastern Ukraine visited by Russia’s highest ranking officer, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Gen. Valery Gerasimov.
U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson later said the intelligence was not shared with Ukraine “with the intent to kill Russian generals.”
The Kremlin has regularly claimed that Russia is in a proxy war with the U.S.-led west.
Washington has publicly and privately shared intelligence with Ukraine before and during Russia’s invasion, walking a fine line to avoid escalation.
The Biden administration had changed a classified directive in early April, lifting some geographic limits on actionable information to be shared on potential targets in eastern Ukraine as Russi shifted its military objectives, the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press reported at the time.
“We have opened up the pipes,” Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a U.S. Senate panel Tuesday.
Publicly available data analyzed by independent Russian media said at least 317 Russian officers including two major generals have been killed in Ukraine.