Moscow and Kiev also followed the publication of secret US documents on the Ukraine war for days. Then a suspicious American is arrested. The news at a glance.
After the arrest of a suspect over the release of classified US documents on the war in Ukraine, Kiev continues to prepare for an offensive against Russian invaders.
The military leadership is developing its plan according to the situation at the front, Secretary of the National Security Council Oleksiy Danilov said on Ukrainian national television. “Everything is decided at the last moment when the final decisions are made,” he said yesterday. Previously, Ukraine downplayed the damage from the US leak.
21-year-old arrested in the United States
The US federal police FBI arrested a 21-year-old member of the US military in North Dighton, Massachusetts, who is said to have published documents about the war in Ukraine on the Internet. The man was taken into custody in connection with the “unauthorized removal, storage and transmission of classified information,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in Washington yesterday. He is a member of the National Guard and his name is Jack T. He is said to have led a chat group on the Discord platform popular with video gamers and published the explosive documents there.
Secret documents from US agencies – allegedly from the CIA and the Pentagon – on the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine have been circulating on the Internet for weeks: information on arms deliveries, assessments of what is happening in the war. But also details of alleged US spying against partners. It was unclear what is authentic and what could possibly have been edited. For the US government, however, the matter is uncomfortable one way or the other. Questions arise about how reliable Americans are, how well they protect their secrets and those of their partners, and how loyal they are to allies.
Officials in Kiev initially claimed that the documents were not genuine, but a typical forgery by Russian secret services. Russia’s goal is to use disinformation to torpedo the planned spring offensive to liberate the areas occupied by Moscow. The Kremlin in Moscow, on the other hand, described the information as interesting and saw it as new evidence of the involvement of the USA and NATO countries in the war. Both sides had emphasized that the publication would not change the respective war goals.
According to US media, the main benefit for Moscow is that the secret documents also contain information on the communication channels from informants in the Russian ranks to the secret services. As a result, these sources themselves could now be in danger. Russia can now close leaks, it said.
Zelenskyj praises the effectiveness of Ukrainian weapons
In his evening video speech on the anniversary of the shelling and sinking of the Russian warship Moskva, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the effectiveness of his own missiles.
A year ago on April 13, Neptun-type missiles showed how professionally Ukraine’s military-industrial complex works, Zelenskyy said. He had therefore determined by decree that the date would be celebrated as Arms and Defense Industry Day in the future. Ukraine sunk the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet a year ago and celebrated this as a great triumph in the war.
Ukraine is now able to produce “everything from grenades to rockets, from artillery shells to drones,” said Zelenskyy. But they are also looking forward to the delivery of weapons that partners had promised.
Pistorius sees no course change in Western fighter jets
From Poland, for example, the Ukraine receives MiG-29 combat aircraft from former GDR stocks. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius sees no change of course with regard to the delivery of western combat aircraft after the federal government gave the green light to hand over the jets to Ukraine. Everything that helps quickly is important, said the SPD politician yesterday in Bamako, the capital of Mali.
“It’s about MiGs because they can be used immediately by the Ukrainian armed forces, because they are known, because they can be flown immediately, because both maintenance and repair and maintenance can be carried out almost seamlessly and seamlessly,” said Pistorius. “None of this applies to Western aircraft, especially those that we have in Germany. That’s why we don’t have this debate.”
Pistorius, who continued his trip in West Africa, announced that formal written confirmation to the Polish government for permission to re-export to Ukraine will go out today. An application received only yesterday in Berlin was approved within a few hours. These are aircraft that Germany gave to Poland in 2003. The Bundeswehr had taken it over from former stocks of the National People’s Army (NVA) of the GDR.
EU sanctions against Russian mercenary group Wagner
The European Council added the Russian mercenary group Wagner to its sanctions list for its “active” involvement in the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. The measure was justified last night in Brussels with the fact that the actions of the Wagner group undermined and threatened “the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”. In addition, the European Council imposed sanctions on the Russian media organization Ria Fan. It is part of the Patriot Media Group, whose board of directors is headed by the head of the Wagner mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
What is important today
In eastern Ukraine, fighting continues for the strategically important city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. According to Prigozhin, Moscow’s troops control around 80 percent of the city, which is largely destroyed. However, the Ukrainian armed forces are not giving up, said Prigozhin. He claimed that 32,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in fighting in the region alone. There is no information on this from Ukraine.