Washington will continue to engage with allies “at a very high level” in connection with the leak of classified Pentagon materials regarding Washington and NATO’s plans to prepare the Armed Forces of Ukraine for a counteroffensive. According to TASS, this was announced by John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator at the White House National Security Council, during a briefing on board the plane of US President Joe Biden, who went on a visit to Northern Ireland and Ireland.
“We, as I said, interact at a very high level with allies and partners and keep in touch with them. <…> We will continue to do so as needed,” he said, when asked about the impact of the incident on “U.S. relations with allies and partners.”
“The Department of Defense took swift action to deal with the national security implications of the leak. <…> One of the first actions of the minister [обороны Ллойда] Austin was to send the case to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation. They are doing it. That is the way things are at the moment,” he concluded.
On Monday, Kirby said that the incident did not affect the support of Ukraine by Washington, which intends to continue to help Kyiv.
Earlier, American media reported that the Pentagon and the US Department of Justice launched an investigation due to the leak of secret documents relating to plans by Washington and NATO to prepare the Ukrainian Armed Forces for a counteroffensive.
Reuters emphasizes that this could be one of the most significant leaks since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2013. At the same time, as the agency notes, documents distributed on the Internet may turn out to be fake.
Source: Rosbalt
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