Dozens of leaked classified Pentagon documents about U.S. spying on Russia’s military in Ukraine have been posted online, prompting the federal government to seek the source of those leaks.
U.S. intelligence sources have said they believe the documents are real, but that they may have been altered in certain parts, in particular regarding estimates of Ukrainian casualties.
The documents were posted recently as photos on Twitter and Telegram. They lay out Ukraine’s military strength and casualty figures as well as the burn rate for U.S.-provided HIMARS long-range rocket systems. Some of the documents are dated March 1.
Other documents reveal the degree to which the U.S. has penetrated the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian mercenary Wagner Group. Those intercepted communications and human sources may now have to be cut off.
The more than 100 pages of slides and briefing data further reveal the depth to which the U.S. is invested in Ukraine’s battle against Russia. They show that while the Biden Administration has barred U.S. troops from directly engaging Russia’s military, or from providing weapons that Ukrainians could use to reach potential targets inside Russia, the documents suggest that the U.S. is heavily entangled in almost all other interests regarding Ukraine’s defense.
“We are aware of the reports of social media posts, and the Department is reviewing the matter,” U.S. Defense Department spokesperson Sabrina Singh said on Friday.
On Sunday, Singh said U.S. officials had notified Congressional committees of the leaked documents and referred the matter to the Justice Department, which has opened an investigation.
A Defense official told CNN, meanwhile, that the Joint Staff, which comprises the Pentagon’s most senior uniformed leadership who advise President Biden, is examining its distribution lists to look at who gets these reports.
Further, according to Singh, the Pentagon is reviewing and assessing the impact of the leak, which reveals U.S. spying not just on Russia but also on allies.
A Ukrainian official told CNN it was “unsurprising” to learn that the documents revealed that the U.S. has been spying on President Volodymyr Zelensky—though Kyiv is frustrated about the leak.
An official from a country that’s part of the “Five Eyes” intel-sharing coalition between the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. said that they expect the U.S. “to share a damage assessment with us in the coming days, but we cannot wait for their assessment.”
The official added that their country’s officials were “poring over these documents to figure out if any of the intelligence originated from our collection.”
An official from a second Five Eyes country expressed concern about the leak’s impact on Ukraine’s war effort.
“Gains for Ukraine will be hard to accomplish, but it does not help to have the private U.S. assessment pointing to a likely yearlong stalemate revealed publicly,” that second official said.
