Adviser Says Ukrainians Have Died for Want of American Warnings
Serhii Beskrestnov, who advises the Ukrainian president on military technology, says American intelligence has become “incomplete and inconsistent” and that “people [have] already died” as a result. The White House says there has been no change to intelligence sharing. The secretary of state said there had been no pause: “I don’t know where he’s getting these things.”
His complaint is narrower than it first sounds, and that makes it more checkable: “intelligence data keeps flowing, and the issue is solely with the air raid alert component”. Sometimes warnings arrive before an attack, he says, and sometimes one minute before. He believes the simultaneous satellite and intelligence problems are “probably” American pressure to negotiate, which is his inference rather than anything established. He is also not quite saying what his own president says: Volodymyr Zelensky told American television that sharing had been restored after a three-day pause and that he was “very thankful”, while posting on Monday that of two overnight attacks on Kyiv, one came “without warning, the second with only minimal time to take shelter”. The satellite dispute this column has carried for four editions is now at least clear in its mechanics, if not its blame: the military service restricts units moving faster than 100mph, which is what disables interception. Elon Musk says the American government controls access because the system was built for the Pentagon; the president denies involvement. Kyiv says it is looking for an alternative.