Kyiv asks the US for intelligence on targets in Russia

Kyiv turned to Washington with a request to provide more intelligence information about the deployment of troops and the location of military facilities on Russian territory, reported on Friday, American media cited American and Ukrainian officials.

A corresponding request was sent in recent days. Previous similar requests, as well as requests to allow the use of weapons supplied by the United States to strike targets in Russia, have been consistently rejected by Washington. The current attempt was made by Kiev against the backdrop of a sharp increase in the actions of the Russian army in the Kharkov region.

Formally, the position of the United States remains the same: the United States does not encourage or facilitate strikes on Russian territory in order to prevent the escalation of the war. According to sources quoted by the American press, this request will be considered by the White House.

The United States shares some intelligence with Ukraine, including information about Russian movements towards the Ukrainian borders. Kyiv, how writes New York Times, we need information that would allow us to more effectively use drones and missiles to attack targets on Russian territory, for example, to plot their course beyond the visibility of Russian radars. Ukraine now has access to data from commercial satellites, allowing it to monitor activity at major Russian military bases.

Two weeks ago, Britain became the first NATO member to publicly announce that Ukraine could use British-supplied weapons to strike Russian territory. During a visit to Kyiv earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that while the US does not encourage strikes outside Ukraine, Kyiv “ultimately must make its own decisions about how to fight this war.” “We will continue to support Ukraine with the equipment it needs to win,” added Antony Blinken. It became known that in recent weeks the United States for the first time transferred ATACMS ballistic missiles to Ukraine, capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 300 kilometers. It is believed that they were used by the Ukrainian army to carry out attacks on the Belbek airfield in Crimea, where Russian military aircraft are based. As a result of this attack, three fighters were destroyed on the night of May 15-16.