(Washington) The US Department of Defense denied, on Thursday, providing intelligence information that allowed Ukrainian forces to target senior Russian officers near the front, as the Defense Ministry claimed. The New York Times.
Updated May 5
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said it was true that the United States was passing intelligence to Kyiv “to help the Ukrainians defend their country.”
But he added, “We do not provide information on the whereabouts of senior military commanders on the battlefield, nor do we participate in targeting decisions made by the Ukrainian military.”
US information helped Ukraine sink the Russian cruiser MoskvaNBC said Thursday.
According to what was reported by the chain, quoting unidentified officials, the Ukrainian forces asked the Americans for information regarding a ship sailing in the Black Sea. Then the Americans identified the building as Moskva He was to clarify his position.
Photo by Max Delaney, AFP
Russian cruiser Moskva Sunk on April 14.
The MoskvaThe flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and which can officially reach 680 crew members, sank on April 14.
A senior US official, who asked not to be named, denied to AFP that the United States had provided identifying information. Moskva.
“We do not provide specific targeting information on ships. We provide a set of intelligence to help Ukrainians better understand the threats posed by Russian ships in the Black Sea and help them prepare to defend against potential attacks from the sea.
Claim “irresponsible”
Contrary to the Pentagon’s claims, the The New York Times On Wednesday, he said, citing unnamed US intelligence sources, that the intelligence provided by the United States to the Ukrainian army led to the targeting of several Russian generals near the front.
The newspaper quoted a number of senior US officials as saying that among the dozens of Russian generals killed by Ukrainian forces, “many” were targeted with the help of US intelligence.
The US National Security Council had earlier called the claim that the US was helping Ukraine kill Russian generals as “irresponsible”.
“The United States is providing battlefield intelligence to help the Ukrainians defend their country,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrian Watson told AFP in an email.
“We are not providing information with the intent to kill Russian generals,” she stressed.
The report wrote that US intelligence efforts to assist Ukraine included “focusing on locating and other details of a regularly moving Russian mobile military headquarters.” The New York Times.
On Monday, the Pentagon officially indicated that Russia’s chief of staff, Valery Gerasimov, visited “several days” last week at the front in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, suggesting that top Russian military officials were close to a combat visit.
But the Pentagon did not confirm rumors of injury to Valery Gerasimov.