US intel aided Ukraine shield its air defences, shoot down Russian planes & troops: Report

US intelligence had widely helped Ukrainian forces foil Russian troops’ attempts to take control of the capital city Kyiv. Spies in Washington helped the Ukraine military to stall the advances of the invading Russian forces by sharing a detailed intelligence that involved the information regarding the exact time and the location when the Russian bombs would be targeted in the capital city. The US repelled the efforts of Moscow to take siege of Kyiv by alerting the Ukraine troops on where Russian missiles would strike. “The intelligence led Ukraine to shoot down a Russian plane carrying hundreds of troops to Hostomel Airport in the Kyiv suburbs in the early days of the war,” a report published by NBC revealed. 

Ukraine was able to thwart Moscow's offensive due to Washington's intelligence 

Due to United States’ unprecedented information sharing operation, Ukraine was able to thwart Moscow's combat operations as US spies divulged the coordinates of Russian forces and aircraft to the Ukrainian armed forces. This would allow Ukraine’s soldiers to pre-empt the attacks, the report said. American intelligence not only helped Ukrainian forces target Russian planes but also protect their own aircraft from the Russian strikes. The sharing of information with the non-NATO partner Ukraine was crucial to the tough resistance in Kyiv. “US assistance has blocked Russia from gaining dominance over Ukraine's skies,” stated the NBC’s report, adding that the intelligence had countered Russia's military superiority. 

"The Russian military has literally been cratering empty fields where air defences were once set up," a US official told NBC. It has had an enormous impact on the Russian military’s ability on the ground,” he went on to add. 

The CIA also corroborated "significant resources" that protected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the leader who was a top target for the Russian forces. The US spy agencies coordinated with Ukrainian officials on "how best to move him [Zelenskyy] around" and made sure that the Ukrainian President “could not be located” along with the rest of his chain of command, a US official told NBC News. The White House National Security Council did not make public comments about thwarting Russian military operations saying, "We are regularly providing detailed, timely intelligence to the Ukrainians on the battlefield to help them defend their country against Russian aggression and will continue to do so." Pentagon has played an important role in helping Ukraine shoot down Russian aircraft and deter Russia's aggression. “From the get-go, we leaned pretty heavily forward in sharing both strategic and actionable intelligence with Ukraine,” said the official on condition of anonymity.