The intelligence-sharing relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine has bounced back to previous highs, according to long-time Ukraine watchers, giving Kyiv a welcome boost during a critical window for the Ukrainian war effort. That’s the machinery of power at work: Washington’s information pipeline, Kyiv’s battlefield needs, and ordinary people on both sides of the war zone left to absorb the consequences.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the intelligence committee’s ranking member and a longtime proponent of more U.S. assistance to Ukraine, said he sees evidence of an improved intel-sharing agreement and believes it has helped Kyiv gain an advantage in Moscow’s four-year-long war. "I don’t want to get into any specifics, but it has improved," Warner said, adding that Ukraine’s use of long-range drones and missiles has allowed it to strike deep within Russian territory and strengthen its position.
Who Has the Power
In recent months, Kyiv has carried out more aggressive strikes across Russia, enabling it to take back territory and stabilize the front line. That has given the country more leverage as Ukraine looks to use battlefield gains to pressure Russia to the negotiating table. The language is polished, but the structure is plain enough: intelligence flows down from one state apparatus, military force moves through another, and the people living under both are told this is leverage.
Republican Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Roger Wicker, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, agreed that intel-sharing between the U.S. and Ukraine has increased at a moment of strategic importance. Cornyn said, "It sure seems like that. Everybody loves a winner and looks like Ukraine has turned the tide." Winners and tides. That’s how the powerful talk when they’re counting gains and losses from a war that keeps grinding on.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he has also seen signs of greater communication between Ukraine and the U.S. "I was in Ukraine in April 2025 and I was there again in July 2026. And I detect more confidence in the communication," Kaine said. The confidence belongs to officials and committees, not to the people living through the strikes, the alarms, and the wreckage.
What the State Calls Cooperation
George Barros, the director of innovation and open source tradecraft at the hawkish Institute for the Study of War, said cooperation from the U.S. has been key to Ukraine’s positive turn in fortune. He said Trump reportedly approved intelligence sharing for Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure last year, and said the strikes were "supercharged" and became significantly more effective when imbued with intelligence from the Americans, part of a "larger, more coherent strategy for how to actually create real costs." Barros also said American early warning systems have been alerting Ukrainians to incoming Russian missile attacks since the early days of the war.
That’s the modern war economy in a sentence: surveillance, targeting, and early warning systems, all wrapped in the language of strategy. The people below the chain of command don’t get to vote on any of it.
The White House did not provide details on whether its intelligence-sharing relationship with Ukraine has expanded, but said Trump is focused on facilitating an end to the war. "The President wants this war settled so the senseless killing ends," said the White House spokesperson in a statement. "The President and his team remain committed to continuing to play a constructive role in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, and he remains optimistic that we’ll ultimately get a peace deal done." The CIA and ODNI did not respond to a request for comment.
Who Pays for the Bargain
Washington also stands to benefit from Kyiv’s intelligence, said John Herbst, who served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2003-2006 and still maintains contact with officials in the country. "There’s no doubt of the following: Ukraine has outstanding intelligence on Russia," he said. Stephen Sestanovich, a fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said, "When you talk to Ukrainian intelligence officials, you hear confident insights into what is going on in Moscow, and not just in the Kremlin," and called them "Insights of a sort that justify a truly cooperative and reciprocal sharing arrangement."
That reciprocal arrangement is what the institutions call partnership. On the ground, it means states trading secrets, refining strikes, and tightening their grip while civilians remain the ones who pay for the escalation.
Ukraine’s stronger footing also comes as U.S.-mediated talks to strike a peace deal with Moscow have stalled. Trump’s negotiating team, which includes Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, has been preoccupied with the Iran war, bumping Ukraine down its priority list. In that time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appears to have risen in President Donald Trump’s estimation as Kyiv has made gains against Russia.
In early July, a barrage of Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure forced Moscow, one of the world’s top fuel exporters, to halt its exports of diesel. Zelenskyy has sought to put that intelligence to use, and before his July visit to the Oval Office he claimed Kyiv planned to provide Trump with evidence that Russia was aiding Tehran. The talks stall, the strikes continue, and the officials keep moving pieces around the board while the war machine keeps chewing through lives.