What is known about the leaked Pentagon documents

It’s been less than a week since news of highly classified military documents on the Ukraine war surfaced, sending the Pentagon scrambling for damage control to reassure allies and assess the extent of the leak.

The information in dozens of slides has exposed potential vulnerabilities in Ukraine’s air defense capabilities and exposed secret allied assessments on a variety of intelligence matters, raising questions about whether the leak will erode confidence among allies about sharing information with the United States or it will affect Ukraine’s plans to escalate the fight against Russia this spring.

In general, the leaked documents present a “very serious risk to national security”, warned a senior Pentagon spokesman in a meeting with journalists on Monday.

Here’s a look at what the documents are, what’s known about how they came to be, and their potential impact.

What are they?

The confidential documents — which have not been individually authenticated by US officials — range from briefing slides outlining Ukraine’s military positions to assessments of international support for Ukraine and other sensitive topics, including under what circumstances Russian President Vladimir Putin might appeal. to nuclear weapons.

There is no clear answer as to how many documents were leaked. The Associated Press has seen approximately 50 documents. Some estimates put the total number in the hundreds.

Where did they come from?

No one knows for sure, not even the head of the Pentagon.

“They were somewhere on the web and where exactly and who had access at the time, we don’t know. We just don’t know”Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin admitted during a press conference on Tuesday. “We will continue to investigate and review absolutely everything until we find the source of this and its extent.”.

The leak may have started on a site called Discord.

Discord is a popular social networking platform among those who play online games. The Discord site hosts real-time voice, video and text chats for groups and describes itself as a place “where you can belong to a school club, a gaming group, or a global art community”.

In one such forum, originally created to discuss a variety of topics, members debated the war in Ukraine. According to a member of the chat, an unidentified person shared documents that he claimed were classified. She first transcribed them along with her own thoughts, and then, a few months ago, she uploaded images of folded papers.

The person claiming to be a member of the forum told The Associated Press that another person, identified online only as “Lucca,” shared the documents in a different Discord chat. From there, they appear to have spread until they caught the attention of the media.

Many details of the story could not be verified at this time, and senior US officials publicly acknowledge that they are still trying to find answers.

what they reveal

The leaks have shown how closely the United States monitors its allies and friends when they interact with Russia and China. Officials from several countries have denied or rejected the allegations in the leaked documents.

The AP reported that US intelligence picked up messages from Russian agents that they were building a closer relationship with the United Arab Emirates, the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation that is home to major US military installations. The UAE rejected the claims, calling them “categorically false”.

The Washington Post reported Monday that Egypt’s president has ordered his subordinates to secretly prepare to send up to 40,000 rockets to Russia as it wages its war in Ukraine. A spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said his government maintained “non-participation in this crisis and promised to keep the same distance from both parties”.

Other leaks concern allegations that South Korean leaders were hesitant to send artillery shells to Ukraine, and that Israel’s Mossad spy service was opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judiciary reform.

Funded at $90 billion a year, US intelligence agencies have broad powers to intercept the electronic communications of others, use spies and monitor with satellites. The results of those powers rarely surface in public, even in a limited way.

The US response

The Pentagon has begun an internal review to assess the impact of the leak on national security. The review is led by Milancy D. Harris, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, a defense official told the AP in writing. The team includes representatives from the offices of legislative affairs, public affairs, politics, legal counsel and the joint staff, the official added.

The Pentagon also moved quickly to reduce the number of people who have access to briefings, a second defense official said. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential matters.

Pentagon officials are also closely monitoring where “publish and amplify leaked slidessaid Chris Meagher, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.

On the other hand, the Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into how the slides were obtained and leaked.

CIA Director William Burns called the leak Tuesday “deeply unfortunate.”

“It is something that the United States government takes very seriously.”, he declared at Rice University. “The Pentagon and the Department of Justice have now launched a very intensive investigation to get to the bottom of this.”.

What is its impact?

Several senior US military leaders have contacted allied governments to address the fallout. That includes calls.”at a high level to assure you of our commitment to safeguard intelligence and loyalty to our security associations. Those talks started over the weekend and are still going on.Meagher confirmed.

US officials are likely to face more questions when they travel to Germany next week for the next contact group meeting, where representatives from more than 50 countries are coordinating the delivery of arms and other aid to Ukraine.

However, the leak of the documents is not expected to affect that meeting or the allies’ willingness to continue providing military assistance to Ukraine, a senior defense official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity. discuss confidential matters.

“I think a lot of the allies will probably be more curious as to why it happened.says Chris Skaluba, director of the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative, a nonprofit group of independent experts on international security and economic prosperity based in Washington, DC.

For starters, given the high-level security clearance required to gain access to the information, the leak raises questions about who”I would have such hidden intentions to publish it”, and if the purpose was to undermine support for Ukraine, Skaluba alerts.

On Tuesday, Austin contacted his South Korean counterpart, Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, to discuss the leaked documents, several of which were particularly sensitive to Seoul because they described US surveillance of its ally and they detailed South Korea’s reservations about supplying ammunition to Ukraine directly.

The two defense chiefs agreed that a “considerable number” of the leaked documents were fabricated, Kim Tae-hyo, deputy director of national security, told reporters. He added that the alliance between the two countries would not be affected by the leak and that South Korea would seek to further strengthen cooperation with the United States.

And both Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken reached out to their counterparts in Ukraine. Austin indicated Tuesday that the leaks would not have much impact on Ukraine’s plans for a spring offensive.

Ukraine’s strategyit will not be directed by a specific plan. They have a great plan to get started, but only President Zelenskyy and his leadership team really know all the details of that plan.Austin said.

On other sensitive issues highlighted in the leaked slides, such as Ukraine’s lack of sufficient air defense munitions, the shortage itself was already known and is one reason US military leaders have pressured allies to to provide whatever systems they can, such as the Iris-T systems promised by Germany and the US-made Hawk air defense systems provided by Spain.

“Going public with an apparent shortage of anti-aircraft missiles may reassure Russia, but if it encourages Ukraine’s partners to speed up the delivery of missiles and other air defense capabilities, kyiv will appreciate it. The biggest ‘known unknown’ is to what extent these leaks will influence US political support for Ukraine.says Ben Barry, a senior land warfare researcher at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Source: AP