Politico reports:

Yesterday, the talk of the town was breaking news of the U.S. providing intelligence to Ukraine to kill Russian generals. Now there’s another firestorm over reports on American-provided information helping Ukraine to sink Russia’s Moskva warship last month.

Speculation abounded across the Washington, D.C., natsec and intel communities that the administration was intentionally rubbing salt in the Kremlin’s wound. Turns out none of this is a coordinated leak by President Joe Biden’s team: “Someone is eager to take credit, but it’s not helpful,” a U.S. official told NatSec Daily. Others we spoke to revealed there’s an internal freakout over the stream of stories, though it’s unclear exactly who is feeding reporters the juicy nuggets.

Instead of boasting, a parade of administration officials have denied the direct link between the shared intelligence and targets, saying that U.S. military and intel assets merely tell Kyiv where the Russians are generally headed and where the next offensive might take place. What Ukrainian forces do with that information is up to them.

The intelligence the U.S. provides can get specific but not in every instance, multiple Western officials say. Ukrainian forces still have a lot to do after, for example, receiving information about a ping off a cell tower before finding the Russian invaders. [Continue reading…]