WASHINGTON — The United States has provided intelligence on Russian units that has allowed the Ukrainians to attack and kill many of the Russian generals who have been killed in action in the Ukraine war, according to senior US officials.
Ukrainian officials said they have killed about 12 generals on the front lines, a number that has stunned military analysts.
The targeting aid is part of a classified effort by the Biden administration to provide real-time battlefield intelligence to Ukraine. That intelligence also includes anticipated Russian troop movements gleaned from recent US assessments of Moscow’s secret battle plan for the fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, the officials said. Officials declined to specify how many generals had died as a result of US aid.
The United States has focused on providing the location and other details about the Russian army’s mobile headquarters, which is frequently relocated. Ukrainian officials have combined that geographic information with their own intelligence, including intercepted communications alerting the Ukrainian military to the presence of senior Russian officers, to carry out artillery and other attacks that have killed Russian officers.
The intelligence sharing is part of an intensified flow in US assistance that includes heavier weapons and tens of billions in aid, showing how quickly early US restrictions on support for Ukraine have changed as that the war enters a new stage that could end. months.
US intelligence support for the Ukrainians has had a decisive effect on the battlefield, confirming the targets identified by the Ukrainian military and pointing them to new targets. The flow of actionable intelligence on Russian troop movement that the United States has provided to Ukraine is unprecedented.
Since failing to advance on kyiv, the capital, in the early part of the war, Russia has tried to regroup, with a more concentrated push in eastern Ukraine, which has so far moved slowly and unevenly.
The officials interviewed for this article spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details of classified intelligence being shared with Ukraine.
The administration has tried to keep much of the battlefield intelligence secret, fearing it could be seen as escalating and provoke President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia into a broader war. US officials did not describe how they obtained information about the Russian troop headquarters, for fear of jeopardizing their collection methods. But throughout the war, US intelligence agencies have used a variety of sources, including classified and commercial satellites, to track Russian troop movements.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III went so far as to say last month that “we want to see Russia weakened to the point where it can’t do the kinds of things it has done by invading Ukraine.”
When asked about the intelligence being provided to the Ukrainians, John F. Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said “we will not discuss the details of that information.” But he acknowledged that the United States provides “Ukraine with information and intelligence that they can use to defend themselves.”
After this article was published, Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said in a statement that the battlefield intelligence was not provided to the Ukrainians “with the intention of killing Russian generals.”
Not all attacks have been carried out with US intelligence. An attack over the weekend at a location in eastern Ukraine where General Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s highest-ranking uniformed officer, had visited, was not aided by US intelligence, according to multiple US officials. The United States prohibits itself from providing intelligence on top Russian leaders, officials said.
But US intelligence was instrumental in the deaths of other generals, the officials acknowledged.
The United States routinely provides information on the movement of Russian troops and equipment and helps Ukraine confirm the location of critical targets. Other NATO allies also provide real-time intelligence to the Ukrainian military.
The Biden administration is also supplying new weapons that should improve Ukraine’s ability to attack senior Russian officials. The smaller version of the Switchblade drone, now hitting the battlefield, can be used to identify and kill individual soldiers, and could take out a general sitting in a vehicle or giving orders on the front lines.
US officials have publicly acknowledged that the United States began providing actionable intelligence to Ukraine in the lead up to Russia’s invasion on February 24. Before the invasion, for example, US intelligence agencies warned of an imminent attack on Hostomel airport north of kyiv. . That allowed Ukraine to strengthen its defenses. The Russian airborne forces were ultimately unable to hold the airfield.
While the information the United States has provided to Ukraine has proven valuable, Russian generals have often been exposed to electronic eavesdropping by speaking on unsecured phones and radios, current and former US military officials said.
“It shows poor discipline, lack of experience, arrogance and lack of appreciation of Ukrainian capabilities,” said Frederick B. Hodges, a former top US Army commander in Europe who now works at the Center for European Policy Analysis. . “It’s not hard to geographically locate someone on a phone speaking clearly.”
Russian military tactics have also left high-ranking generals vulnerable. A top-down, centralized command hierarchy grants decision-making authority only to the highest levels, compared to the more decentralized American structure that pushes many battlefield decisions down to senior enlisted personnel and junior officers, forcing Russian generals to make risky trips to the front lines. to solve logistical and operational problems.
“When there are problems, the general officers have to fix them,” General Hodges said.
Although the administration remains wary of inflaming Mr. Putin to the point that he further escalates his attacks (President Biden has said he will not send US troops to Ukraine or establish a “no-fly zone” there) current and former officials said that White House finds some value in warning Russia that Ukraine is supported by the United States and NATO.
Some European officials believe that despite Putin’s rhetoric that Russia is fighting NATO and the West, he has so far been dissuaded from starting a broader war. US officials are less sure and have been debating for weeks why Putin has not done more to escalate the conflict.
The officials said Moscow has to weigh its own calculations, even if it can handle a bigger war, particularly one that would allow NATO to invoke its mutual defense card or enter the war more directly.
“Clearly, we want the Russians to know on some level that we are assisting the Ukrainians in this measure, and we will continue to do so,” said Evelyn Farkas, a former Defense Department official for Russia and Ukraine in the Obama administration. “We will give them everything they need to win, and we are not afraid of Vladimir Putin’s reaction to that. We will not be self-deterrent.”
But intelligence sharing is seen as a safe form of help because it is invisible, or at least deniable. US intelligence has provided secret information to Ukraine in a wide range of areas, from Russian troop movements to target data, officials said.
Last month, the United States increased the flow of intelligence to Ukraine about Russian forces in Donbas and Crimea, as military forces in kyiv prepared to defend against a new Moscow offensive in eastern Ukraine, US officials said.
“There is a significant amount of intelligence flowing into Ukraine from the United States,” Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate panel on Tuesday. “We have opened the pipes.”
Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting from the Ukraine.
Reference-www.nytimes.com