According to leaked Pentagon documents dated February, Ukraine’s air defenses are at risk of running out of missiles and munitions in a matter of weeks as U.S. officials track how the records were leaked.

One February 23 document details how Ukraine’s Soviet-era S-300 air defense systems will run out by May 2 at current usage rates. It is unclear if the usage rate has changed since then.

Colonel Yuriy Ikhnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, did not specifically comment on the information contained in the documents, but told the Wall Street Journal that Ukraine is facing serious problems regarding the S-300 and Buk systems.

“If we lose the battle in the sky, the consequences for Ukraine will be very serious,” he told the newspaper. “Now is not the time for delay,” he said, urging Western allies to expedite aid.

According to some US officials, the apparent leak of a large cache of classified Pentagon documents may have come from a US source.

The United States assesses the risks of leakage of classified documents

At the same time, the US is trying to assess the risks to its national security of leaking classified documents, mostly related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon said yesterday.

The leak of classified documents, uncovered last week by the New York Times, mainly concerns assessments and reports by US intelligence agencies on the development of the war in Ukraine, as well as on Washington’s allies.

“An interagency collaboration has begun to assess the potential impact (leakage) of these photographed documents on our national security, as well as on our allies and partners,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said.

Documents posted on social media could be valuable to Moscow as they reveal the extent of US spy agencies’ penetration of the Russian military and state apparatus, US media reported.

The Justice Department, which launched an investigation on Saturday, is trying to trace the source of the leak and is still investigating whether any of the leaked documents are genuine.

According to the Washington Post, citing US officials, some of them appear to be fakes or the result of stitching. But most of them are consistent with CIA reports circulating in the White House, the Pentagon, or even the State Department, according to the same source.

Some contain information about allies. For example, one of them concerns a discussion in the South Korean government about sending shells suitable for American artillery to Ukraine, the New York Times explains.

Source: Reuters, APE-MPE, AFP, New York Times.