U.S. Intel Helped Ukraine Plot Recent Resurgence

Amid the recent gains by Ukraine in pushing back Russian forces, The New York Times report is crediting U.S. intelligence in helping Ukraine plan an effective counteroffensive that might have Russia on the run in the east and south of Ukraine.

Ukraine, which had been reluctant to share intelligence with U.S. officials, has stepped up its sharing and capitalized on U.S. knowledge of Russian munitions, positions, weaknesses, and targets in plotting the current move this summer, officials told the Times.

"The Ukrainian military's counteroffensive is moving faster and taking terrain even faster than expected," former CIA officer Mick Mulroy told the Times. "Now is the time for the Ukrainian army to exploit every opportunity they have to degrade and destroy the Russian capacity to fight."

The uptick in intelligence sharing coincided with the military assistance provided by the U.S. government, according to the report, which noted Ukraine's plan was their own, albeit with the use of American intelligence.

"I have thought for several months that Ukraine was going to push Russia back to the 23 February lines by the end of the year," retired Lt. Gen. Frederick B. Hodges told the Times. "I watch the Russian logistics, and it just looked to me that they cannot sustain this. Their morale and discipline and all their manpower issues — it's just not sustainable for them to do what they were trying to do."

American Special Operations have been training Ukraine forces on military strategy since the 2014 invasion of Crimea, and recently a diversion allowed Ukraine to surprise Russian forces and score larger gains, the Times reported.

"These guys have been trained for eight years by Special Ops," former Obama administration Pentagon expert on Ukraine and Russia Evelyn Farkas told the Times. "They've been taught about irregular warfare. They've been taught by our intelligence operators about deception and psychological operations."

While there tend to be ebbs and flows of gains during war, officials believe the Ukraine forces have exposed some of Russia's vulnerabilities.

Now, it is a matter of sustaining it and guarding against Russia's own retaliatory strike sure to come, according to the report.

"The next phase is, they will try to defeat our energy and financial sectors," Ukraine Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Georgii Dubynskyi told the Times. "We have seen this scenario before."

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