The documents were distributed via the online services Twitter and Telegram, the New York Times reported on Thursday (local time). A Pentagon spokeswoman said it was investigating the matter.
According to the report, the documents contained details of arms deliveries, battalion strength and other sensitive information. However, the information in the documents is at least five weeks old and reflects the status at the beginning of March.
information about education
A document is said to summarize the training plans of twelve Ukrainian combat brigades. According to the report, the document states that nine of them are being trained by US and NATO forces. However, the documents do not contain any information about possible attack targets or details – such as timetables – of the spring offensive planned by Ukraine.
For the Russian military, however, interesting and important insights could be derived from this. So far, at least in the media, it has not been known how quickly rockets are fired from the mobile US rocket launchers HIMARS, according to the “NYT”. The documents record the rate at which the Ukrainians are firing ammunition. HIMARS successfully used Kiev to attack Russian arms depots and command centers behind the front lines.
Distribution through pro-Russian channels
According to the New York Times, the documents were distributed through pro-Russian channels. At least one of the documents is said to have been classified as “top secret”. The US government is trying to delete the documents from social networks. So far, however, this has not been successful.
Russian disinformation warning
According to the newspaper, experts consider the documents to be authentic. However, according to the report, they warn that some documents may have been altered as part of a Russian disinformation campaign. For example, higher fatalities among the Ukrainian troops and lower Russian losses were reported. For example, the Russian casualty figures are given as 16,000 to 17,500. However, Western estimates assume that almost 200,000 Russian soldiers were killed.
Close cooperation damaged?
According to the NYT, however, there is serious damage to American intelligence activities and US efforts to support Ukraine with intelligence information. It was Russia’s first “secret service coup” since the beginning of the war. Since the beginning of the war, the US has been providing Ukraine with a great deal of information about important Russian military positions, such as the location of command centers and ammunition depots.
Indeed, several times in the previous year, Kiev managed to successfully attack such targets. At the same time, at the beginning of the war, Kiev was reluctant to even share military information with the United States – not least for fear that it might become public or fall into the hands of the enemy. In this respect, at least that is what the “NYT” suspects, this could damage the secret service cooperation with the USA, which has been close for months – from which Moscow would in turn benefit.
