Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published on Tuesday in The Washington Post that he learned from press reports, not from Washington, that classified US documents had been leaked, which mainly related to Ukraine’s war with Russia.

“Neither the White House nor the Pentagon informed me in advance,” Zelensky told the American newspaper. “We didn’t have this information, I didn’t know,” he added.

Asked by CNN, Wing Commander Pat Ryder, a spokesman for the Pentagon, limited himself on Tuesday to saying he was “not in a position to say whether this is true or not,” while reiterating that Washington is supporting Kiev in the conflict.

Secret US documents, which were discovered in early April after being leaked online, reveal inconvenient details about how Washington views the war, showing, among other things, that the US was particularly concerned in late February about a situation in which Ukrainian air defense had fallen.

A young American soldier was arrested for leaking these documents and appeared in court on April 14.

“For us, everything that informs our enemy in advance is, one way or another, a disadvantage,” Zelensky said.

The episode “is not good for the reputation of the White House, it is not good for the reputation of the United States,” Zelenskiy said, comparing press coverage of the leak to a “television soap opera.”

Source: RES-IPE