Third States Sharing Military Intelligence with Ukraine

Sammanfattning

This essay analyzes the legality of the sharing of military intelligence by third States with Ukraine. The analysis is made primarily with the law of neutrality and the Charter of the United Nations in focus but also draws on the work of legal scholars for specific insights into international law. Details on military intelligence are rarely publicly disclosed which entails complexities with conducting case studies. This analysis is therefore of a general nature, although only considering the international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The essay concludes that the intelligence sharing is illegal under the traditional law of neutrality, i.e. as it is formulated in the Hague Conventions of 1907, because it violates the principle of impartiality. However, it may be legal provided that a distinctive form of the law of neutrality, called qualified neutrality, is considered to be valid. On the contrary, it concludes that the sharing of intelligence is legal under the UN Charter since it would be considered a measure of collective self-defence according to Art. 51 of the UN Charter.