Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly issued a directive to U.S. Cyber Command to halt the planning and implementation of offensive digital actions against Russia.
The secretary gave the order to Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh in late February, according to the Record, a cybersecurity news publication. The full scope of Hegseth’s directive remains unclear.
“Due to operational security concerns, we do not comment nor discuss cyber intelligence, plans, or operations. There is no greater priority to Secretary Hegseth than the safety of the Warfighter in all operations, to include the cyber domain,” a senior defense official said.
The pause comes as the Trump administration has sought to ease strained relations between the United States and Russia, in addition to attempting to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. In that effort, President Donald Trump has made false statements assigning responsibility for the war to Ukraine and sided against Ukraine and European allies at the United Nations in favor of Russia.
Separately, the Department of Homeland Security has disputed reporting that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has decided not to follow or report on Russian cyber threats. The Guardian reported over the weekend that there was a memo from CISA setting out priorities for the agency that did not mention Russia.
“The memo referenced in the Guardian’s ‘reporting’ is not from the Trump Administration, which is quite inconvenient to the Guardian’s preferred narrative,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. “CISA remains committed to addressing all cyber threats to U.S. critical infrastructure, including from Russia. There has been no change in our posture or priority on this front.”
CISA leads the country’s effort to understand and reduce risk to the U.S.’s cyber and physical infrastructure, while U.S. Cyber Command is one of the 11 combatant commands within the Department of Defense and leads the military’s cyberspace operations and defenses.
Russian and U.S. senior officials have held two in-person meetings in recent weeks to discuss ending the war. The two sides agreed to restart diplomatic missions in each other’s countries. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have spoken over the phone, and both sides have expressed an openness to state visits.
The Trump administration’s pursuit of peace comes as the U.S.-Ukraine relationship has tumbled. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump, and Vice President JD Vance got into a dispute over the war and how to ensure Russia is deterred from future attacks against Ukraine.
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Zelensky had traveled to the U.S. to sign a deal with the Trump administration ordering U.S. support for Ukraine’s natural minerals infrastructure in exchange for a portion of the future profits. Zelensky was kicked out of the White House before signing the agreement, though he has since expressed a willingness to sign it.
National security adviser Mike Waltz said on CNN the Cyber Command pause “has not been part of our discussions” regarding the administration’s efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war. “There will be all kinds of carrots and sticks to get this war to an end.”