Western powers share critical intel to head off Russia in information war

The United States and its allies have shared an unprecedented amount of intelligence regarding Russian plans for Ukraine in an attempt to throw Moscow off-balance -- but critics have warned that such a move could compromise informants working within the rival power's government.

So far, intel drops have included U.S. warnings that Russia could post a staged video of a Ukrainian attack to justify military action, the U.K. saying it had acquired intelligence showing that Russian President Vladimir Putin intended to replace Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with a pro-Moscow leader, and repeated pronouncements that a Russian attack was imminent.

“We’ve seen [Russia] run false-flag operations and use the confusion many times in recent history,” a senior U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal. “Exposing these plots makes it that much harder for Russia to execute them.”

The anonymous official is likely referring to the Russian military's 2008 incursion into Georgia and the subsequent annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014, where the Kremlin is said to have used disinformation campaigns as a form of asymmetric warfare. 

The Kremlin, however,  has repeatedly denied it is planning to invade Ukraine and called all such accusations “propaganda.”

Although releasing intelligence to weaken an enemy position is not knew, experts have signaled that the Western powers' approach has been undertaken on a much larger scale and is likely meant to create confusion amongst Russia's intelligence agencies. 

However, some analysts have noted that the tactic reveals how limited Western options are.

In recent days, both the U.S. and British officials have said they will not send troops to Ukraine -- a country that is not yet a member of NATO -- but will rather rely on massive sanctions if Moscow decides to invade. 

Still others worry that Western powers run the risk of exposing informants in Russia who provided the leaks. 

Experts, however, have noted that much of what has been released is “low grade,” and a U.S. intelligence official told the WSJ that everything was going through proper declassification channels.