U.S. intelligence played a key role in Ukraine’s attack on a leading Russian warship last month, a U.S. official said Thursday.
Ukraine steered and sank Russia’s missile cruiser Moscow on April 14 with its own anti-ship missiles after the United States provided “intelligence” that included the ship’s location in the Black Sea, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The United States did not know about the attack on Ukraine until it was completed, the official said in comments first reported by NBC News.
The loud sinking of the Moscow was a blow to the Russian military, who denied that the ship had been shot down by Ukraine, instead claiming it had sunk due to an unexplained fire and a “sea of rupture”.
The flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet made news at the beginning of the war, when Ukrainian border guards defending a small island refused to surrender and told the ship to “fuck off”.
The revelation of Washington’s role in the attack came as the Biden administration faced growing political pressure to step up its efforts to support the Ukrainian military two and a half months after Russia’s unprovoked invasion.
At the beginning of the conflict, the White House was walking a tightrope in support of Kyiv, while taking steps not to provoke Moscow to escalate the war.
Ukraine was targeted by the Russian missile cruiser Moscow after the ship shelled a small Black Sea island. VASILIY BATANOV / AFP via Getty Images
News of US intelligence in the Moscow attack, combined with recent aid with heavy weapons and calls for a $ 33 billion aid package, highlighted how the Pentagon’s strategy has become less cautious recently.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Thursday threw cold water on a New York Times report that US intelligence was used by Ukraine to kill about a dozen Russian generals.
U.S. agencies “do not provide intelligence on the whereabouts of senior military leaders on the battlefield and are not involved in decisions to target the Ukrainian military,” he said.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby denied a report that US intelligence had helped Ukraine kill many Russian generals. AP Photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta
“Ukraine combines the information that we and other partners provide with the information that they collect themselves and then they make their own decisions and take their own actions.
With AP wires
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