(Washington) The US Department of Defense on Thursday denied providing intelligence allowing Ukrainian forces to target senior Russian officers near the front, as claimed by the New York Times.
Posted at 5:40 p.m.
Updated at 6:36 p.m.
It’s true that the United States is passing intelligence to Kyiv “to help the Ukrainians defend their country,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
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.”
Information from the United States helped Ukraine sink the Russian cruiser Moskvathe American channel NBC said on Thursday.
According to anonymous officials quoted by the chain, the Ukrainian forces asked the Americans for information concerning a ship cruising in the Black Sea. The Americans would then have identified the building as being the Moskva and would have clarified its position.
Photo MAX DELANY, Agence France-Presse
The Russian cruiser Moskva sank on April 14.
the Moskvaflagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which could officially have up to 680 crew members, sank on April 14.
Contrary to Pentagon claims, the New York Times said on Wednesday, citing unnamed US intelligence sources, that intelligence provided by the United States to the Ukrainian military had led to the targeting of several Russian generals near the front.
Quoting several senior US officials, the newspaper said that of the dozen Russian generals killed by Ukrainian forces, “many” were targeted with the help of US intelligence.
The US National Security Council (NSC) had previously called the claim that the US was helping Ukraine kill Russian generals “irresponsible”.
“The United States is providing battlefield intelligence to help Ukrainians defend their country,” NSC spokeswoman Adrienne Watson told AFP in an email.
“We do not provide information with the intention of killing Russian generals,” she stressed.
Washington’s intelligence efforts to assist Ukraine have included “focussed on determining the location and other details of mobile Russian military headquarters, which move regularly”, the report wrote. New York Times.
On Monday, the Pentagon officially reported that Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov had been on the frontlines in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine for “several days” last week. thus suggesting that Russia’s top military officials were closing in on the fighting.
But the Pentagon had not confirmed the injury rumors concerning Valéri Guerasimov.