Russia has accused the United States of direct involvement in the Ukraine war after reading about Kyiv’s cooperation with Western intelligence in the Telegraph.
Moscow’s defense ministry claimed that our interview with Kyiv’s acting head of military intelligence, Vadym Skibitsky, implied that he admitted that Washington is coordinating the Himars missile strikes.
“All this undeniably shows that Washington, contrary to the claims of the White House and the Pentagon, is directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine,” he said.
“The Biden administration is directly responsible for all of the rocket attacks sanctioned by Kyiv against residential areas and civilian infrastructure in populated areas of Donbas and other regions, which have resulted in mass civilian deaths.”
US President Joe Biden has said he wants Ukraine to defeat Russia, but US officials do not want a direct confrontation between US and Russian soldiers.
When asked how US-provided Himars multiple launch rocket systems have targeted Russian fuel and ammunition depots and battlefield headquarters in eastern Ukraine, Maj. Gen. Skibitsky said that “in this particular case, we use real-time information.”
US officials do not provide direct targeting information, which could undermine their case for not being direct participants in the war.
However, he suggested there was a level of consultation between intelligence officials from both countries before launching missiles that would allow Washington to halt strikes if they were unhappy with the intended target.
“I can’t tell you whether we are directly targeting British and American satellites, but we have very good satellite images,” he told The Telegraph.
“We have very good cooperation with our partners in the UK in this field. We have very good communication with all the sister intelligence agencies.”