The EU has approved an agreement with Ukraine under which they will be able to provide classified information to Kiev, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources. It said satellite images are one example of what would be shared.
The agreement will last for a year and could be renewed as necessary, the news agency said. EU ambassadors were informed about it during a meeting on Tuesday, according to the report.
It is not clear if the deal would only cover EU members’ own intelligence or allow them to relay information received from third parties like the US.
The EU is supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Western nations have imposed harsh economic sanctions against Russia, but refused to use military force to protect Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky has attempted to shame NATO on a daily basis for their refusal to shoot down Russian warplanes operating over Ukraine. The US-led alliance has said it does not want to risk escalating the conflict into a world war.
Moscow attacked its neighbor in late February, following a seven-year standoff over Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.
Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.