The United States’ “pause” in intelligence support to Ukraine is now effective. On Wednesday, March 5, CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed Washington’s new reversal, signaling both maximum pressure from the Trump administration on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and an unprecedented turnaround in the cooperation that had hitherto existed between allies in the highly sensitive field of intelligence.

On Thursday, French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu was the first European official to confirm the pause and explain the parameters. “The American agencies’ contribution to satellite observation, to everything that can be done (…), has been suspended since yesterday afternoon,” he said on French radio station France Inter.

“The total ban on intelligence sharing is effective, both directly from the US to [Ukraine], but it is also a ban on NATO allies transferring data received from the US to us,” Ukrainian military expert Ievhen Dyky told Le Monde. The ban “applies to all forms of intelligence,” he added.

Although the Pentagon has not disclosed any details on the nature of the suspension since Wednesday, several segments of Ukrainian operations and security appear particularly vulnerable, such as targeting assistance. The country’s most complex systems, such as drones and long-range artillery, are highly dependent on data provided by American satellites to plan their strikes.

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