Ukrainian soldiers ride an APC in Donetsk region, Ukraine. FILE/AP.
Ukrainian soldiers ride an APC in Donetsk region, Ukraine. FILE/AP.
Washington: The much-awaited and hyped Ukrainian counter strike on Russia that has been months in the planning might have ended even before a start. Classified documents with details of the attack plan, including sensitive information such as photographs of charts of anticipated weapons deliveries, troop and battalion strengths, were leaked on social media platforms in the US, the New York Times reported Friday.
According to NYT, the Pentagon has launched an investigation to find out the source of this highly sensitive and damaging intelligence leak.
The publication quoted senior Biden administration officials as having said that “Classified war documents detailing secret American and NATO plans for building up the Ukrainian military ahead of a planned offensive against Russia were posted this week on social media channels.”
The sensitive documents appeared on Twitter and on Telegram.
Russia toys with US, NATO
In yet another turn of events, to add insult to injury, NYT said military analysts were of the view that the disclosed documents “appear to have been modified in certain parts from their original format, overstating American estimates of Ukrainian war dead and understating estimates of Russian troops killed”, suggesting a disinformation campaign by Moscow.
“Whether these documents are authentic or not, people should take care with anything released by Russian sources,” said Michael Kofman, the director of Russian studies at CNA, a research institute in Arlington, Va.
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“For example, one of the slides said 16,000 to 17,500 Russian soldiers had been killed while Ukraine had suffered as many as 71,500 troop deaths. The Pentagon and other analysts have estimated that Russia has suffered far more casualties, with closer to 200,000 killed and injured, while Ukraine has had more than 100,000 killed and injured,” the NYT report said.
“Nonetheless, analysts said parts of the documents appeared authentic and would provide Russia with valuable information.”
According to NYT, Biden officials has not succeeded yet in getting the documents purged from the social media sites.
“We are aware of the reports of social media posts and the department is reviewing the matter,” said Sabrina Singh, the deputy press secretary at the Pentagon.
No specifics leaked, but invaluable for Russia
According to the report, while the documents do not reveal any specifics—battle plans, how, when, and where Ukraine intends to launch its counteroffensive and the documents are five-weeks old—it could be invaluable for the Russian war planners.
“The documents mention, for instance, the expenditure rate of HIMARS — American-supplied high mobility artillery rocket systems, which can launch attacks against targets like ammunition dumps, infrastructure and concentrations of troops, from a distance. The Pentagon has not said publicly how fast Ukrainian troops are using the HIMARS munitions; the documents do,” the NYT reported.
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