US SCRAMBLES TO FIND SOURCE OF UKRAINIAN WAR INTELLIGENCE LEAK

Mon 10 Apr 2023:

The US is working feverishly to determine the source of a potential leak of highly-classified documents that appear to reveal private information about US allies, including the weaknesses of Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.

The Pentagon announced on Sunday that it had formally referred the Department of Justice to look into the alleged leak of the documents, which have been making the rounds on Twitter and other social media platforms.

The documents, which resemble non-public daily updates produced by the US military’s Joint Staff, appear to contain intelligence related to Ukraine, China, the Middle East and Africa.

Others reveal the degree to which the US has penetrated the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group, largely through intercepted communications and human sources, which could now be cut off or put in danger.

The leak appears to show Washington spying on close US allies, including Ukraine, South Korea and Israel, a potentially embarrassing revelation for the administration of US President Joe Biden.

However, the documents appear to contain at least some errors, including battlefield casualty estimates that minimise Russian losses.

According to US officials speaking to Reuters, they have not ruled out the possibility that the documents were altered to hide their true source or disseminate false information that might jeopardize US security interests.

The leaked documents, according to the Ukrainian presidential office, are clearly the product of a Russian disinformation campaign and contain a significant amount of “fictitious information.”

Ukraine has already altered some of its military plans because of the leak, a source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN.

The Pentagon has stood up an “interagency effort” to assess the impact of the leak, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said Sunday.

“The Department of Defense continues to review and assess the validity of the photographed documents that are circulating on social media sites and that appear to contain sensitive and highly classified material,” Singh said in a statement. “An interagency effort has been stood up, focused on assessing the impact these photographed documents could have on U.S. national security and on our Allies and partners.”

Singh added that US officials spoke with allies and partners over the weekend regarding the leak, and informed “relevant congressional committees.”

One document dated February 23 and marked “Secret” states that if stockpiles are depleted at the current rate, Ukraine’s air defense systems will run out of ammunition by May.

Another document asserts that Israel’s Mossad intelligence service encouraged demonstrations against the contentious judicial reforms proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday had “absolutely no basis whatsoever.”

Senior South Korean officials are alleged to have discussed breaking Seoul’s policy against exporting weapons to belligerent nations in another document when they were pressured by the US to assist in providing weapons to Ukraine.