The leakage of US intelligence data harms Ukraine's military efforts and shows the disadvantages - The Hill

About it writes the American newspaper The Hill in a material published on April 10. Seed documents that have leaked on the social network contain detailed information about ammunition, preparation and air defense system at a critical moment of struggle. The Pentagon still checks the accuracy of the documents. Dozens of US and NATO's secret documents, some with a "secret" stamp, began to seep to the Internet in January, and then got to Twitter and Telegram and attracted attention last week.

Despite the fact that these materials contain information about the state of conflict only until March, they give an idea of ​​the military potential of Ukraine, including the number of battalions, the preparation of modern weapons and the deployment of heavy combat vehicles, such as Leopard 2 tanks, journalists write.

According to the US media, documents also give an idea of ​​the shortcomings of Kyiv, at least one document describes that ammunition may soon end in the country for Soviet anti -air missile system systems, which opens potential vulnerability in Ukraine's air defense systems.

Kurt Volker, a researcher at the Center for Analysis of European Policy, said the leakage is concerned because it gives the world a "instant picture" of assessments and judgments of the United States about war in Ukraine. "This is a signal to Ukrainians, Russians, to others:" That's what we think. "It can give some tips about the quality of our information from where we get it . . . that will make people on whom we collect information, close this topic," - said Volker.

According to journalists, perhaps the most anxiety leak contains information about Ukrainian air defense. Yes, in one of the documents dated February this year, it is said that the C-300 missiles will end by May, and the SA-11 Gadfly missile system will be exhausted by the end of March. According to NATO, both systems make up 89% of Ukraine's air defense and play a crucial role in reflecting frequent Russian rocket strokes.

Russian military bloggers have already widespread documents that have leaked, including those that estimate the number of air defense systems and aircraft such as fighters deployed by Ukraine. NATO assessment also states that Ukraine will only be able to withstand a few waves of Russian rocket strokes, and a map of the Air Defense systems is given.

John Herbst, Senior Director of the Eurasia Center of the Atlantic Council and the former US Ambassador to Ukraine, called information about Ukraine's air defense "the most unusual" part of the leakage of documents. At the same time, he said that none of the documents contains any critical information that would not be known to NATO and Russian intelligence ally.

"I do not think that there are any doubts that as a result of the leakage of information, some harm has been caused by the military efforts of Ukraine. But this damage was excessive? Apparently not," Herbst suggested. Other documents explain the strength and capabilities of the Ukrainian brigades, as well as on what systems of weapons Ukraine trained. One of the February documents estimates the number of tanks, infantry combat vehicles and artillery units that are in service with Ukraine.

The leak is concerned in the United States, as Russia can find out how the Pentagon collects the most important intelligence on Russian forces and opportunities. The documents contain information not only about the forces of Ukraine, but also a detailed assessment of the Russian army, from tanks to artillery and aircraft.

It is unclear how many documents are currently circulating on the Internet, but, according to several reports and analysts, at least 100 separate documents have appeared on the network. On Monday, the Pentagon refused to comment on the size and scale of the leakage, reporting that the Ministry of Defense was still investigating this issue.

"The Ministry of Defense is working around the clock to study the scale of distribution, evaluation of consequences and our measures to mitigate the consequences. We still investigate how it happened, as well as the scale of the problem. . We are still trying to evaluate what can be there, "Chris Miger, Assistant to US Defense Minister in public relations, told reporters.

Migher also reported that the format of documents "similar to the one used for the daily provision of our top executives of updated information about operations in Ukraine and Russia, as well as other intelligence data" and "is a very serious risk for national security. " Last week, Pentagon stated that he was studying the documents of the documents and passing the official criminal investigation against them to the Ministry of Justice.

On Monday, US officials said the investigation was a "priority task" and called for caution in the documents, noting that some of them were changed. On April 10, the Israeli media reported that according to the "secret documents" of the Pentagon, which fled to the network, Israel is allegedly going to supply fatal weapons to Ukraine.

On the same day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhah, commenting on this information, stated that Jerusalem did not give permission to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine. On April 9, the US TV channel CNN found that the Ukrainian military command had to changed some of the military plans due to the leakage of secret documents on future counter -offensive. In this case, the Pentagon is forced to reduce the flow of super -secret documents and strengthen control behind them.

We will remind, on March 10, Focus gathered all information about the leakage of secret data of American intelligence, which was known at that time. We also remind that on April 9, Bellingcat investigators found out the approximate term of "drains" of Pentagon documents. Some files began to appear in January 2023 on Discord servers for gamers. The emergence of "secret military documents" on NATO plans for further support of the Armed Forces became known on April 7.