US Informed Ukraine of Moskva Location before Striking It

By Staff, Agencies 

The US admitted on Thursday that it had shared intelligence with Ukraine about the location of the Russian missile cruiser Moskva prior to the strike that sank the warship.

An American official said on Thursday that Ukraine alone decided to target and sink the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet using its own anti-ship missiles. But, the US has provided “a range of intelligence” that includes locations of those ships, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Biden administration has ramped up intelligence sharing with Ukraine alongside the shipment of arms and missiles to help it repel Russia’s invasion. 

As the war has gone on, the White House has ramped up its military and intelligence support, removing some time and geographic limits on what it will tell Ukraine about potential Russian targets.

The official who spoke Thursday said the US was not aware that Ukraine planned to strike the Moskva until after they conducted the operation. NBC News first reported on the American role in the sinking of the ship.

Speaking earlier Thursday after a New York Times report about the US role in supporting Ukraine’s killing of Russian generals, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said American agencies “do not provide intelligence on the location of senior military leaders on the battlefield or participate in the targeting decisions of the Ukrainian military”.

“Ukraine combines information that we and other partners provide with the intel that they themselves are gathering and then they make their own decisions and they take their own actions,” Kirby said.