Three U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday that Russia or forces supportive of Russia are probably responsible for the leak of multiple classified U.S. military papers that were uploaded on social media and provide a fragmentary, month-old image of the conflict in Ukraine.
The records seem to have been changed, according to U.S. officials, who added that their evaluations were unofficial and independent from an inquiry into the leak itself.
Given the sensitivity of the situation, the U.S. officials talked on the condition of anonymity and refused to go into any more information about the materials.
Requests for response from the Kremlin and the Russian embassy in Washington were not immediately fulfilled.
The papers, which are dated March 1 and include marks indicating they are classified as “Secret” and “Top Secret,” have been circulating on websites like Twitter and Telegram, but the Pentagon has refused to comment on their veracity.
Such a critical document breach is very rare and would immediately warrant an inquiry.
The Department of Defense is looking into the claims of social media postings, according to Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokesman.
According to a document shared on social media, 16,000 to 17,500 Russian military have died since their invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
According to authorities, the United States thinks the real number is significantly higher, at perhaps 200,000 dead and injured Russians.
The New York Times was the first to report on the Pentagon’s investigation into the alleged leak.
Early in 2022, Ukrainian soldiers halted a Russian push on Kiev. Since then, the battle, which Moscow refers it as a “special military operation,” has devolved into trench warfare in the east and south.
Nonetheless, the document leak comes as rumors about potential offensives Moscow and Kiev may launch in the second year of the conflict are growing. There didn’t seem to be any concrete information about Kiev’s war intentions in the released papers.
The leak, according to a Ukrainian presidential official on Friday, seemed to be a Russian misinformation campaign to cast doubt on Ukraine’s intended counteroffensive and featured a “quite big volume of fake material.”
“They are just common components of Russian intelligence’s operational games. In a written declaration, Mykhailo Podolyak added, “And nothing more.
