Ukraine's dependence on information provided by the United States is no longer as critical as it was a year ago, a Financial Times analysis shows, amid fears of a possible further suspension of American support.
Ukraine needs information from satellites and other sources to face the Russian assault
A few weeks ago, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Paris currently provides about two-thirds of Kiev's intelligence capabilities, pointing out that a year ago Ukraine was almost completely dependent on the United States in this area. According to the FT, if US intelligence support were cut off, European allies could cover Ukraine's needs within months.
Donald Trump's return to the White House has turned this topic into a priority for European capitals, the publication notes. A further suspension of information sharing would be a severe shock to Ukraine's Defense Forces, already depleted after years of war, and would at the same time constitute an additional incentive for Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, the impact of such a decision would not be as devastating as a year ago, when Washington temporarily suspended Kiev's access to intelligence data.
And then, Europe intervened to limit the effects of the American decision. Today, the responsiveness of European allies is considered significantly better.
“Ukraine's dependence on American intelligence can be significantly reduced within months“, a Western official told the Financial Times.
However, certain vulnerabilities persist. In December, Kirilo Budanov, then head of Ukraine's military intelligence services, warned that Kiev remained critically dependent on the United States in areas such as satellite imagery, radar data and optical intelligence. He explained that Ukraine has commercial contracts with major US aerospace companies, but that a political decision in Washington to terminate these agreements would reduce the country's access to space information “to zero”.
The Financial Times suggests that while Europe is increasingly ready to take on a significant share of the burden, American support remains, at least in the short term, a key element in Ukraine's security architecture.
