Report of the “New York Times”
Alleged US military secrets surfaced online again – Kiev speaks of Russian fakes
A Ukraine MSLR BM-21 “Grad” fires on Russian positions on the front line
© Evgeny Maloletka
According to media reports, documents containing US military secrets have again appeared on the Internet. A Russian disinformation campaign is suspected in Kiev.
According to media reports, new documents containing US military secrets about Ukraine, China and the Middle East have surfaced online. According to a report by the New York Times, the more than 100 classified documents published on Friday (local time) on Twitter, among other things, contained information about Ukraine’s air defense capabilities. The documents appeared to come from the US military and intelligence agencies, the Wall Street Journal wrote. The Pentagon is investigating the matter, a spokeswoman for the US Department of Defense told the “WSJ”. The same applies to the CIA, the foreign intelligence service.
The Pentagon made the same statement on Thursday, when it became known about a similar release of secret documents on Ukraine’s preparations for a military offensive against Russia. According to The New York Times, a US intelligence official described the revelations as a “nightmare” for the “Five Eyes.” The term describes the intelligence cooperation of five countries: USA, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
The New York Times reported that national security circles are wondering how much secret information has leaked out after the revelations and are making every effort to find the leak. In addition to information on Ukraine, the recently released documents also contained classified data relating to China, the military situation in the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and terrorism, it said.
Ukraine sees documents as Russian fakes
Kiev, meanwhile, also believes the new allegedly secret documents that have surfaced on the Internet are Russian forgeries and part of a disinformation campaign by Moscow in the wake of the war in Ukraine. “It’s an ordinary intelligence game,” said the adviser to the presidential office, Mykhailo Podoliak, on Twitter and Telegram on Saturday. The Russian secret services prepared the documents themselves with the aim of sowing doubts and discord among Ukraine’s allies and distracting them from the next stages of the war.
US media, including the New York Times, first reported on Friday about other documents containing US military secrets about Ukraine, China and the Middle East that had appeared on the Internet. The more than 100 documents, which were published on Twitter, among other things, contained information about Ukraine’s air defense capabilities, it said. The Pentagon and the CIA are investigating the matter.
Podoljak explained that the material was a collection of data from publicly available sources mixed with fabrications and intercepted information. All of this was then stamped with a leak of secret data, published en masse on the internet and social media in hopes of generating some credibility.
The day before, Podoljak had also described the first similar publications as fake – and as an attempt by the Russians to disrupt Ukraine’s planned spring offensive. The fakes were also badly made, said Podoljak. The initiators would specifically target journalists and media who would not recognize that they were part of someone else’s game.