‘MOST SUCCESSFUL INTELLIGENCE OPERATION IN MILITARY HISTORY’: As Ukrainian forces continue to inflict heavy casualties on the Russian invaders, it’s becoming increasingly clear that in addition to the courage and ingenuity of the Ukrainian defenders and the steady flow of better weapons from the West, actionable U.S. intelligence is the critical difference maker on the battlefield.

Whether last month’s NBC report that U.S. intelligence on the Russian war plan and precise location and destination of its forces, which allowed Ukraine to shoot down a fully-loaded troop transport and prevent the takeover of a strategic airport, or this week’s New York Times report that U.S. intel on the movement of Russia’s field headquarters enabled the killing of a dozen generals, or the latest reports from multiple sources that the U.S. helped Kyiv identify and sink the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, real-time intelligence has been the key factor in success.