(Reuters) -The U.S. has been helping Ukraine mount long-range attacks on Russian energy facilities for months in a concerted effort to weaken the economy and force President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
U.S. intelligence helped Kiev attack key Russian energy assets, including oil refineries, well beyond the front lines, the newspaper said, citing unnamed Ukrainian and U.S. officials familiar with the campaign.
The White House, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office and Ukraine's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. There was no immediate comment from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Moscow said this month that Washington and its NATO alliance regularly provided intelligence to Kiev in the war Putin launched in February 2022.
“The offer and use of the entire infrastructure of NATO and the United States to collect and transfer intelligence to Ukrainians is clear,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters at the time.
The FT said US intelligence is helping Kiev shape route planning, altitude, timing and mission decisions, allowing Ukraine's long-range one-way attack drones to evade Russian air defenses.
The United States is deeply involved in all phases of the planning, the report said, citing three people familiar with the operation. A US official said Ukraine selected the targets for long-range strikes and Washington then provided information about the locations' vulnerabilities.
Early this month, two US officials told Reuters that Washington would provide Ukraine with information on long-range targets for Russia's energy infrastructure as it weighs whether to send Kiev missiles that could be used in such attacks.
The US has also asked NATO allies to provide similar support, the US officials said.
Zelenskiy said on Saturday that he had discussed Russia's attacks on Ukraine's energy system in a “positive and productive” phone call with US President Donald Trump.
“We discussed options to strengthen our air defense, as well as concrete agreements we are working on to ensure this. There are good options and solid ideas on how we can really strengthen ourselves,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.
(Reporting by Yazhini MV in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by William Mallard)
