Kyiv on Monday dismissed claims that Ukraine passed fake intelligence to Washington to test leaks to Moscow, calling the allegations “distorted information.”
The rumors began circulating after Vincent Crouzet, a former French intelligence officer, made the accusation on the TV program 24h Pujadas on Jan. 15, according to a blog post by commentator James Marinero.
“Crouzet, a former operative of the French Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE) and a noted commentator on security matters, alleged during the 24h Pujadas programme that Ukrainian intelligence services have engaged in a deliberate campaign of disinformation directed at the United States,” Marinero wrote.
Marinero said Crouzet claimed on the program that Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) deliberately fed false strategic data to US agencies in a bid to trace leaks to Moscow.
But this appears to be incorrect. Marinero cited Crouzet’s appearance on LCI’s 24h Pujadas programme on Jan. 15, but he does not appear on the version of the show uploaded to LCI’s website.
Crouzet did appear on LCI on Jan. 16, the next day, and he did discuss intelligence-sharing between the US and Ukraine. However, at no point did he claim that Ukrainian intelligence intentionally misled their US counterparts.
During a segment titled “The Eyes and Ears of Kyiv,” Crouzet discussed the significance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent claim that Paris has replaced Washington as Ukraine’s main source of intelligence, now providing two-thirds of Ukraine’s “intelligence capabilities.” Macron did not specify the nature of the capabilities, with a French defense ministry official telling Reuters that most capabilities are technical in nature but declined to offer details.
According to Crouzet, Macron’s remarks have received less media attention than they deserve, as they mark a “rift between Ukrainian and American intelligence.”
Crouzet went on to say that this rift evidently dates back to the infamous Oval Office incident of Feb. 28, 2025, which led to a “breakdown of trust” between the two intelligence services.
What he said next, translated directly, was that Vasyl Malyuk (then of the Security Service of Ukraine, SBU) and Kyrylo Budanov (then of HUR) “decided to stop sharing the efficient intelligence they possessed with their American partners on the part of American leaks to Moscow.”
Although this translation is imperfect – perhaps this turn of phrase has a more idiomatic meaning – it is hard to see how he could be interpreted as saying that Ukraine deliberately passed fake intelligence to the US. Nor did he make this claim later in the segment. Unless something appeared in the live broadcast that was cut from the original, Crouzet did not make the allegations that Marinero claims he did.
Although senior US officials – such as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard – have in the past echoed Russian narratives, there have been no confirmed reports of the US passing intelligence to Russia.
Kyiv Post’s source in the HUR also denied the allegation reported by Marinero, saying that it “discredits the activities of Ukrainian intelligence and special services in terms of interaction with international partners.”
“Ukrainian intelligence, like other Ukrainian authorized bodies and individuals, continues to actively interact with international partners, including the United States, and on the principles of professionalism and responsibility,” the source said.
The source also said the information is being amplified by Russian propagandists to “[take] advantage of the Ukrainian delegation’s stay abroad in order to counteract the negotiation process on ending the war.”
“The published information has no objective basis or real grounds. In addition, the information from the plot of the French media was additionally distorted by Russian propagandists.”