The title is a bit misleading. Yet the Pentagon is trying to identify the source of leaks on social networks of classified documents detailing the strategy of the United States and NATO allies to support Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion, reports the New York Times. “We are aware of press reports regarding posts on social media and the ministry is reviewing the matter”Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said.
Instead of “plans,” these documents, which date from early March, are more like daily briefings and war-related statistics and do not contain specific plans for upcoming military operations. They evoke for example the rate at which the Ukrainian forces use the ammunition of the Himars mobile rocket launchers, or the schedule of the deliveries of weapons or the training provided by the West to the soldiers of Kiev. According to these leaks, twelve Ukrainian brigades are being formed, nine of which are trained and equipped by the United States, notes the New York Times.
A map attempts to assess the dates of the “raspoutitsa”, a period during which due to the melting of the snow in the spring, a large part of the flat land is transformed into a sea of mud under the action of water. The phenomenon particularly affects roads when they are not paved.
Reworked documents
But some seem to have been photoshopped to present the situation in a more favorable light to the Russians, in particular by minimizing the extent of their losses. As Yaroslav Trofimov, foreign affairs correspondent for the wall street journal, or Bellingcat’s Aric Toler, on the pro-Kremlin accounts, the US estimate of 43,500 dead in the ranks of the Russian army is reduced to 17,500 dead, while 17,500 Ukrainian dead have become 71,500 dead. Likewise, Russian vehicle losses fell from 6,004 to 600.
When secret US slides leaked out yesterday, Russian propaganda channels quickly reposted them — but after a littl… https://t.co/OnLpramigF
The earliest versions of the unedited leak I can find — on 4chan, of all places — also has an additional map of t… https://t.co/TKC96AWN2k
The Pentagon asked Twitter to remove posts containing the documents. Elon Muskthe boss of the social network, has a fairly clear-cut opinion on the matter: “Yes, you can totally remove items from the internet. It works perfectly and doesn’t draw attention to what you’re trying to hide at all. »
For his part, Oleksi Danilov, secretary of the Ukrainian national security and defense council, explained to Radio Svoboda that there is not “no more than five people on the planet who have information on where, when and how the counter-offensive will begin”.