Intelligence sharing between the United States and Ukraine has improved significantly since March 2025, according to a report by Politico. The White House briefly cut off the data flow that month following a failed Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat and senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated that he saw improvement in intelligence sharing relations and believed it helped Kyiv gain an advantage in the war against Russia. Warner added that improved data sharing, combined with Ukraine's strategy of using long-range drones, significantly improved Ukraine's position.
Republican Senators John Cornyn of the intelligence committee and Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, agreed that intelligence sharing had stepped up. Cornyn stated that Ukraine appeared to have turned the tide in the conflict. Senator Tim Kaine, a Democratic member of the Armed Services Committee, stated he personally saw signs of improvement and felt increased trust in communication during visits to Ukraine in April 2025 and July 2026.
Expert assessment of intelligence cooperation
Long-time observers of the situation in Ukraine who maintain contact with regional officials reported that intelligence sharing returned to former highs. George Barros, director of innovation and open-source intelligence at the Institute for the Study of War, recalled that Trump approved intelligence sharing last year for Ukrainian forces to strike Russian energy infrastructure to create an incentive mechanism to push Moscow to negotiations.
Barros explained that these strikes became much more effective starting in 2025 with the arrival of the new Trump administration, when intelligence sharing provided higher quality information to increase strike effectiveness. He called this a victory as part of a broader strategy to inflict real losses, noting that US early warning systems have alerted Ukrainians to Russian missile strike preparations since the first days of the war.
John Herbst, who served as US ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006, expressed confidence that Washington can also benefit from Kyiv's intelligence, stating there was no doubt Ukraine possesses outstanding intelligence on Russia. Separately, journalist Jonathan Tamari wrote that relation dynamics between Zelenskyy and Trump changed fundamentally after their Oval Office quarrel last year.
