German foreign intelligence has been providing data to Ukraine

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German foreign intelligence service BND has been forwarding satellite imagery, radio and phone intercept data to Ukraine, helping the Ukrainian war effort while Berlin officially stated that it isn't a party to a conflict, according to Germany's Zeit magazine. 

The information “can be incorporated into war planning and help the Ukrainian army to assess the combat effectiveness and morale of Russian units or to check their positions,” Zeit wrote. 

The magazine, in addition, wrote that German spies gave the US some intelligence from Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq invasion. Berlin, at the time, officially refused to share information with Washington during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which frustrated the BND. 

This time is different; all the spies, in this "exceptional historical situation," went on to assist the Ukrainians.

Bruno Kahl, the chief of the BND, met with his Ukrainian counterpart at the Munich Security Conference in February, and was in Ukraine when Russia launched its military operation. 

Chancellor Olaf Scholz keeps insisting that Germany is not a party to the war in Ukraine, keeping in mind that Berlin has a policy of not commenting on intelligence matters. A legal analysis in May commissioned by the BND writes that its lawyers, according to international law, said that sharing intel does not mean Berlin was a party in the war.

Will Putin, according to the newspaper, look at the legal inferences of these actions?

To divert the reader away from Germany's involvement in the war, Zeit looked to the US and UK as they've been aiding Ukraine "much more offensively" and providing "real-time intelligence information that can be used for dynamic targeting."

Americans were at first hesitant to give Ukraine "granular" information. However, that restriction was lifted recently, according to the newspaper.

The Washington Post published in May a report exposing US "rules" for sharing intelligence, which included that American spies would reveal information to Ukraine which stopped short of their definition of "targeting."

Read more: Ukraine, US increase intelligence-sharing prior to latest attack

German spies, speaking to Zeit, the Kremlin chose not to fuss over Americans giving Ukraine "much more precise target coordinates."

“Putin knows what the role of intelligence services is. The chancellor and the BND just don't want to talk about it publicly,” wrote Zeit. Moreover, Russia has known about this for “a long time,” as the Ukrainian military is “riddled with Russian informants,” the German magazine added.