The US will provide Ukraine with intelligence on long-range energy infrastructure targets deep inside Russia, according to overnight reports, a move that would signal a significant shift in White House support for Kyiv.
The decision would be the first example of a change in policy by Donald Trump since his comments on social media towards the end of September that Ukraine could win back all of the territories occupied by Russia.
Reports in the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, citing unnamed US sources, said the policy had quietly changed ahead of that statement and that the White House wanted Nato allies to follow suit.
No decision, however, had been made on whether the US would supply Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine. Earlier this week the US vice-president, JD Vance, said Trump was considering a request from Kyiv for the missiles that have a range of 1,500 miles.
Western, and particularly US, intelligence in the form of satellite imagery and other monitoring data is considered a significant help in permitting the accurate targeting of Russian facilities deep inside its borders.
A focus on energy targets, such as oil refineries, would allow Ukraine to extend an already successful campaign that has hit 21 out of 38 refineries with long-range drone strikes. That has led to fuel shortages in parts of Russia, and on some days it has been estimated that daily production is down by fifth.
Russia said nothing had changed. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, said: “The US transmits intelligence to Ukraine on a regular basis online. The supply and use of the entire infrastructure of Nato and the US to collect and transfer intelligence to Ukrainians is obvious.”
Trump has become increasingly irritated with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, over the past month as Moscow has stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian cities and failed to soften its demands for more territory as a precursor for negotiations.
After meeting Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in New York last week, Trump posted on social media that Kyiv could win the war, arguing that Russia was suffering increasing economic difficulties.
“After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” he wrote.
However, Trump’s attitude to intelligence sharing with Kyiv, ultimately a matter of presidential decision-making, has changed periodically since he arrived in the White House, depending who he was favouring in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Shortly after Trump rowed with Zelenskyy in the White House at the end of February, the US paused all intelligence sharing with Kyiv for a week in March. Ukraine suffered rapid losses on the battlefield in Russia’s Kursk region before Trump relented after pressure from western allies.
