(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. has lifted some restrictions on sharing intelligence with Ukraine as it confronts a renewed Russian military assault in the east and south, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told Congress of the moves this month, according to one of the people. That came after Representative Mike Turner, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, and Senator Marco Rubio, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote separate letters urging the Biden administration to remove the restrictions.
The expanded sharing is intended to help Ukraine defend and potentially retake territory in those regions, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity about the sensitive matter.
The other person, an intelligence official who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. is intensely sharing timely intelligence with the Ukrainians, including about areas held by Russia before the current invasion. As the conflict has evolved, intelligence agencies have adjusted intelligence-sharing guidelines so that operators have the guidance they need to help Ukraine defend itself, that person said.
Russian military officials said at the end of March that they would shift their focus to taking full control of the Donbas region after a month of fighting that yielded limited territorial gains in the western parts of the country, including an attempted siege of the capital, Kyiv.
The shift was seen as an admission that the rapid, large-scale invasion President Vladimir Putin had envisioned to quickly take the country and oust President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's government had failed and that Russia was focusing on more limited territorial gains. Sergei Rudskoi, the first deputy chief of the General Staff, said, “Our forces will focus on the main thing -- the complete liberation of Donbas.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Ukraine over the weekend and said the U.S. will start sending diplomats back to the country while providing more military aid.
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