They leak alleged US intelligence documents. | The USA Print

The leaked classified documents detailing the national security secrets of US regarding Ukraine, China and the Middle East they show how deeply the Pentagon has infiltrated Russian intelligence services.

The documents, which appeared on Twitter, Telegram, the 4chan message board and elsewhere on Friday, contain warnings to US intelligence agencies ahead of Russian attacks on Ukraine and even include details about specific intended targets, The New York Times reported.

They also describe how the war has devastated both sides of the conflict, illustrating a Russian army that is engaged and exhausted and a Ukrainian army low on air defense ammunition.

The classified documents also reportedly reveal the efforts of USA to spy on the main political and military leaders of Ukraine and the plan developed with NATO to help Ukraine to launch a counterattack.

One of the leaks includes “a secret plan to prepare and equip nine brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces by the United States and NATO for the spring offensive”said a Telegram account that posted documents.

An open investigation

The Justice Department of USA has launched an investigation into the possible dissemination of Pentagon documents that were published on various social networks and that appear to detail the aid that the North American nation and NATO provide to Ukrainebut which may have been altered or used as part of a disinformation campaign.

The documents, which were posted on sites including Twitter, are labeled secret and resemble routine updates the Army’s Joint Chiefs of Staff USA it would produce daily but not distribute publicly. They are dated between February 23 and March 1and provide what appear to be details on the progress of the weapons and equipment that are going to Ukrainewith more precise timeframes and amounts than Washington typically provides publicly.

They are not war plans nor do they offer details of any planned offensive in Ukraine. And some inaccuracies — such as the estimates of Russian soldier deaths, which are significantly lower than the figures publicly stated by US officials — have led some to question the authenticity of the documents.

In a statement issued Friday, Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the Defense Department referred the matter to the Justice Department for investigation. And the Department of Justice, in a separate statement, said: “We have been in communication with the Department of Defense regarding this matter and have launched an investigation.”

The investigation was announced at a time when questions continue to arise about the origin and validity of the documents, and while some reports indicate that more have begun to appear on social networks.

“It is very important to remember that in recent decades the most successful operations of the Russian special services have taken place in Photoshop,” said Andriy Yusov, spokesman for the Russian Military Intelligence Directorate. Ukraine, on Ukrainian television. “From a preliminary analysis of these materials, we see false and distorted figures on losses on both sides, and that part of the information has been collected from open sources.”

Separately, however, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office issued a statement on Friday about a meeting he held with his top military commanders, noting that “participants in the meeting focused on measures to prevent the leak of information regarding the plans of the defense forces of Ukraine”.

If the released documents are any degree authentic, the leak of classified data is worrisome and raises questions about what other information about the war in Ukraine – or about any coming offensive – could be distributed. US officials did not clarify on Friday the origin of the documents, their authenticity or who was really the first to post them online.

The New York Times was the first to report on the documents. Later Friday, the newspaper reported that more documents related to Ukraine and other sensitive national security topics such as China and the Middle East have started to surface on social media.

A US official said the documents resemble data produced daily by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.although some figures are wrong. Even if they were legitimate, the official said, USA believes that there is little real intelligence value in the documents, as much of it is information that Russia would already know or could get on the battlefield. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence documents.

The tables and graphs describe part of the state of the battlefield for both sides from a month ago, the US military movements during the previous 24 hours, the number of troops and local weather forecasts.

But there are errors. In a section titled “Estimated Total Losses,” one document lists between 16,000 and 17,500 Russian casualties and as many as 71,000 Ukrainian casualties. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly stated last November that Russia had lost “well over” 100,000 soldiers, and that Ukraine he had also lost about that amount. And those estimates have continued to rise in recent months, though officials have stopped providing more exact numbers.