Picture a trade where each side hands over something dangerous to the other. Russia, Politico reported, floated exactly that to Washington: Moscow would stop feeding Iran intelligence, among it exact locations of certain American military assets across the Middle East, provided the United States ended its information support to Ukraine about Russian forces.
Washington said no.
Two people familiar with the talks told Politico that the idea came from Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who raised it when Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, both envoys for the Trump administration, met him in Miami the week before. They spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the discussions. The White House would not comment; the Russian Embassy in Washington never answered Politico’s request. Dmitriev, according to DroneIntel’s summary, later called the report “fake”.
Why Europe was uneasy
An EU diplomat called the offer “scandalous”. In plain terms, European officials worry that Moscow wants to pull the US into a two-party arrangement that leaves Europe on the sidelines, and that the Witkoff-Dmitriev meetings are producing little toward a peace deal in Ukraine. The Kremlin said on Thursday that the US-brokered peace talks were “on hold”.
Among the forms of American backing for Ukraine, intelligence is one of the few big ones left after other aid shrank. A previous pause in the exchange sent allies scrambling. One European diplomat pointed to Emmanuel Macron’s claim in January that France now provides “two-thirds” of Ukraine’s military intelligence, but the broader dependence on American surveillance, targeting support and warning is hard to replace.
Russia and Iran
Someone briefed on the intelligence told Politico that since the war started Russia has deepened its military cooperation and information sharing with Iran. The Wall Street Journal broke that story, writing that Moscow supplied satellite imagery and drone technology so Tehran could aim at American forces nearby. The Kremlin dismissed the claim as “fake news”.
The same source said Russia has made several Iran-related offers, and all were turned down, including a proposal to move Iran’s enriched uranium to Russia, which Axios had first reported. Trump himself hinted at a link in a Fox News interview, saying Putin “might be helping” Iran “a little bit” and “probably thinks we’re helping Ukraine”. The US, Politico said, still provides intelligence to Ukraine.
Sources
- An offer proposed by Moscow and rejected by the US (KNEWS, summarising Politico)
- Putin Iran intel pitch tied to Ukraine support (DroneIntel)
