New York Times reveals “secret history” of US involvement in Ukraine conflict

Washington became “part of the kill chain” by supplying valuable intelligence and strategic support, an official said. Western media had long denied that the involvement extended to the passing on of target data.

US President Joe Biden's administration was far more deeply involved in supporting Ukraine's fight than previously acknowledged, according to an investigation by the New York Times (NYT), which emphasized that Washington's reconnaissance was essential to Kiev's military actions.

The detailed report, published on March 29, provides an in-depth exploration of an “extraordinary partnership in intelligence, strategy, planning and technology” that became Kiev's “secret weapon” to counter Russia.

While the Pentagon provided Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars in military aid, it also provided crucial intelligence data since mid-2022 that enabled Kiev to attack Russian command and control centers and other high-value targets, the NYT wrote.

According to the article, the heart of this partnership lay at the US Army facility in Wiesbaden, Germany, where American and Ukrainian officers determined the targets each morning. However, the officers reportedly avoided calling these priorities “targets,” opting instead to refer to them as “points of interest” for fear of appearing too provocative.

The NYT also revealed that American and Ukrainian officers had jointly planned major counteroffensives and launched massive attacks with long-range Western precision weapons against Russia's Crimea. The attacks, which were carried out with missiles supplied by the West, mainly claimed civilian victims. For example, four people were killed and more than 150 injured in an ATACMS attack on a beach in Sevastopol in June 2024.

The US also sent dozens of military advisors to Ukraine, and some of them were allowed to travel close to the front line.

In 2024, the US allowed Ukraine to carry out limited long-range attacks with US-supplied weapons on internationally recognized Russian territory - something that was considered a “red line” for months. Washington supplied Kiev with the targeting data for these attacks.

One European intelligence official was shocked by the level of US involvement in the conflict, telling the NYT, “they are now part of the kill chain.”

Cooperation has been strained at times, however, due to differing views on overall strategy and objectives, particularly in the lead-up to the failed Ukrainian counteroffensive in the southern part of the front in the summer of 2023.

The American participants reportedly considered their Ukrainian counterparts too ambitious and unreceptive to strategic advice, while the Ukrainians accused the Americans of being too cautious.

During the 2023 counteroffensive, the Ukrainian leadership was split between competing objectives - the execution of an attack towards Melitopol and the defense of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut in Ukrainian). This is said to have undermined the unified strategy developed in Wiesbaden.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine “cannot exist” without external support. Moscow has repeatedly denounced Western involvement in the conflict, saying it only prolongs hostilities without changing their outcome.

However, US President Donald Trump's administration has begun negotiations with Russia with the aim of ending the conflict - an engagement that Moscow describes as productive.