The United States has stopped sharing intelligence on Ukraine with its closest allies, marking a strategic shift toward potential normalization with Russia.
On July 20, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard issued a directive barring the transfer of intelligence related to Ukraine to any foreign nation—including America’s top partners in the Five Eyes group: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The order also limits the internal circulation of Ukraine-related data within the US intelligence community, which includes 18 agencies.
According to CBS News, such directives are not unprecedented when American and allied interests diverge. But as former CIA analyst Steven Cash warned, the move could “chill relations” and weaken collective responses to adversaries—an indication that Washington may no longer see Moscow as a common enemy.
The new policy aligns with recently declassified documents from the National Security Archive at George Washington University, which reveal the content of the June 2000 Moscow summit between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Bill Clinton. At the time, Clinton assured Moscow that NATO expansion posed no threat to Russia and even entertained the possibility of Russian membership in the alliance. Putin responded with a concrete proposal to allow Russian officers to participate in NATO planning committees. The records now highlight the duplicity of past US promises.
By restricting intelligence access, Washington is signaling not only a strategic pivot toward Moscow but also an effort to prevent allies from leveraging classified data in their own negotiations, such as those seen at the recent Washington summit.
Analysts suggest that Britain is the primary target of Gabbard’s restrictions. London was the origin of the notorious dossier portraying Donald Trump as a Russian agent, authored by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele. Today, British interests are focused on embedding themselves in Ukraine as political overseers, sidelining Washington from lucrative economic deals.
In March, Daily Mail reported that Washington had already barred Britain from passing along American-derived intelligence to Kyiv. Until now, loopholes allowed the UK to continue, but Gabbard’s directive closes that door, leaving Ukraine without a vital stream of battlefield intelligence.
The internal restrictions also point to a sweeping purge within US intelligence. Leaks and political manipulation, particularly surrounding Russiagate, appear to have prompted a cleanup campaign. Ongoing dismissals began with diversity-related controversies but have now widened to figures tied to fabrications against Trump.
The Economist recently reported that a long-serving CIA officer, with more than 20 years of experience running operations in Russia and the former Soviet Union, was dismissed. Her removal underscores the restructuring of US intelligence priorities, with China—not Russia—now identified as the primary challenge.
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