Russia or pro-Russian elements are likely behind the social media leak of several classified U.S. military documents about the war in Ukraine, Western military aid to the country and preparations for an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, U.S. officials who requested the release told Reuters on Friday. anonymity.

Officially, the Pentagon still refuses to comment on the authenticity of the documents published on Twitter and Telegram and marked “Secret” and “Top Secret”. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said the US Department of Defense is “aware of the social media posts and is looking into the matter”. But the leak of such confidential documents is very unusual and automatically implies the beginning of a serious investigation, Reuters reports, citing Agerpres.

CNN says it has examined the images but does not know if the documents are authentic or not. However, U.S. officials told this station that they appear authentic and are taken from the Pentagon’s broader daily reports on the war in Ukraine, but have been redacted in places.

For its part, Kyiv says that the documents are fake and “have nothing to do with the real plans of Ukraine,” and an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi claims that Russia will see what the real plans are after the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

What would these documents contain?

One of the images of the documents lists Western weapons systems currently available to Ukraine, estimated delivery dates for additional weapons and ammunition, and the current and projected ability of Ukrainian forces to use them following training by allies that supply it with military equipment. Data are also given on the rate at which Ukraine consumes ammunition intended for HIMARS multiple-launch fire systems. Other documents deal with logistics and engineering operations, as well as proposals for plans and strategies.

The map also shows the state of war on March 1 with the location and number of Russian and Ukrainian forces. This document also contains an estimate of the casualties suffered by each camp, among the Russian forces the casualties mentioned are 16,000-17,500 soldiers killed in action, this is one piece of information that appears to have been redacted as the balance is far below the Pentagon estimate.

What the Kremlin said about the documents

Asked by CNN about the images, which are being shared on Twitter and Telegram, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that in any case, Russia “does not have the slightest doubt about the direct or indirect involvement of the United States and NATO in the Russia-Russia conflict . Ukraine”.

“This degree of involvement is growing, gradually growing,” Peskov added. “We are monitoring this process. Of course, this whole story is complicated, but it cannot affect the result of the special operation (not how Moscow gave the war started against Ukraine),” said the Kremlin spokesman.

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