The Biden Administration updated guidance last week in order to more quickly share battlefield intelligence with the Ukrainian government, a senior Biden administration official told the Wall Street Journal.
The flow of intelligence from United States agencies was being delayed by a bureaucratic process that made intelligence less useful to the Ukrainian military by the time it reached them. The administration official said the change in guidance is intended to reduce the bureaucratic obstacles.
Last week, Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had complained in an interview with NPR that lawyers were slowing down the process of sharing actionable intelligence with the Ukrainians.
Other lawmakers said the U.S. could do more, including House Armed Services chairman Adam Smith, who noted last week that providing targeting information was complicated because of how it enables more deadly attacks and the U.S. is still avoiding direct conflict with the Russian military.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated that he will treat “real-time actionable intelligence” as a direct engagement in the war on the ground, according to Senator Sasse.
Details of the change in guidance were not disclosed.
“We’re adjusting as circumstances warrant, and we’ll continue to ensure that operators have flexibility to share intelligence as the conflict evolves,” a U.S. intelligence official told the Wall Street Journal.
News of the change comes alongside an announcement by President Biden Tuesday that he is banning U.S. imports of Russian oil, natural gas, and coal, in another move to harm the Russian economy and Putin, short of direct military engagement.
