The American daily said on Thursday that the country’s intelligence services helped Kyiv to target and then eliminate Russian army figures. Information officially denied by the American authorities.
Has US intelligence helped the Ukrainian army eliminate Russian generals since the beginning of the war started by Moscow? Unofficially, no one doubted it. The rumor took a more official turn on Thursday with an investigation by the New York Times, which quotes several unnamed senior officials within the American services. Of the dozen Russian generals killed by Ukrainian troops, “a lotwere targeted with the help of US intelligence services, says the daily.
Information immediately denied by the American authorities. The American National Security Council (NSC), which reports directly to the White House, even judges their publication “irresponsible”. “The United States is providing battlefield intelligence to help Ukrainians defend their country,” explained Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the NSC, in an email sent to AFP. But, “we do not provide intelligence with the intention of killing Russian generals”.
According to the New York Timesto help Ukraine as closely as possible, American intelligence has notably “focused on determining the location and other details of mobile Russian military headquarters, which move regularly.”
For its part, the Pentagon had officially indicated on Monday that the Russian Chief of Staff, Valéri Guerassimov, had surrendered last week, during “several days”, on the Ukrainian front. In the Donbass, precisely. The Defense Ministry was suggesting that Russia’s top military officials were getting closer to the fighting.
But the Pentagon then did not confirm the rumors of injuries concerning Valéri Guerassimov, made by an adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of the Interior. He had certified on Sunday that many Russian officers had been hit in a “blast” in Izium, eastern Ukraine, adding that the Russian chief of staff was there.
Ukraine does not hide its objective of eliminating Russian generals on the ground. On several occasions, President Zelensky claimed it. And Russia had to admit it. In early March, the municipality of the city of Novorosiisk, in southern Russia, for example, confirmed that General Andrei Sukhovetsky, deputy commander of the 41st army, was dead. “as a hero” in Ukraine.