MOSCOW (Dispatches) – The Pentagon is considering giving Ukraine real-time “actionable” battlefield intelligence which would allow the Ukrainian military to quickly act against Russia, but which also carries the risk of a preemptive first strike by Kiev, The New York Times reported, citing Joe Biden administration officials.
The paper’s sources say the data would include real-time information such as images of Russian troops “moving across the border”, which The NY claims “could enable the Ukrainian military to head off an attack” if shared in time.
One person stated U.S. intelligence agencies are already giving Ukraine more data than before the suspected “Russian buildup”, which Western officials and media began reporting on earlier this year.
NYT’s sources admitted that one sticking point for giving Ukraine the real-time intelligence data was the danger of a Ukrainian first strike directed against Russia.
“The number one thing we can do is real time actionable intelligence that says, ‘The Russians are coming over the berm’,” former Barack Obama-era Deputy Assistant Secretary of defense Evelyn Farkas told the newspaper.
“We tell them, and they use that to target the Russians,” she added.
Along with intelligence support, sources say Washington has proposed redirecting helicopters and other equipment salvaged from Afghanistan to the Ukrainians, and the deployment of additional cyberwarfare experts to the Eastern European country.
10,000 Russian Troops Returning

Meanwhile, the Russian army said more than 10,000 Russian troops are returning to their permanent bases after month-long drills near Ukraine.
“A stage of combat coordination of divisions, combat crews, squads at motorized units... has been completed. More than 10,000 military servicemen... will march to their permanent deployment from the territory of the combined arms’ area of drills,” Interfax quoted the army as saying Saturday.
The drills, Interfax news agency said, were held in several regions near Ukraine, including in Crimea, which rejoined Russia in 2014, as well as in the southern Russian regions of Rostov and Kuban.
Kyiv and Western capitals have been claiming that Russia’s deployment of troops near Ukraine was a preparation for an attack.
Russia denies any such plans, saying it can deploy its troops on its territory as it sees fit.
Moscow is also worried about NATO’s eastward expansion towards Russian borders and says its own security is threatened by Ukraine’s growing ties with the Western alliance.
On Friday, President Vladimir Putin said Russia has successfully test-fired a simultaneous salvo of the Zircon hypersonic missiles, describing it as “a big event” for his nation.
“The tests were conducted successfully, immaculately,” Putin said in televised remarks at a government meeting, adding that the salvo launch of the missile had been carried out overnight.
“This is a big event in the life of the country and a considerable step in strengthening Russia’s security and improving its defense capability,” he added.
Putin first unveiled the development of the supersonic missile during a state of the nation address back in February 2019, noting that it could strike targets at sea and on land within a range of 1,000 kilometers at a speed of Mach 9.