Members of the Ukrainian Special Forces work to neutralize their weapons before a mission as Russia attacks Ukraine on April 6, 2023 in the Bakhmut region of Ukraine.
Kai Faffenbach | Reuters
The Pentagon and Justice Departments are investigating several documents published on multiple social media sites detailing U.S. and NATO support for Ukraine that have been tampered with or misleading information campaigns. It may be used as part of
Documents posted on sites such as Twitter are labeled confidential and resemble regular updates produced daily by the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff but not publicly distributed. They are dated from February 23rd to March 1st and provide what appear to be details on the progress of weapons and equipment entering Ukraine with a more accurate timeline and quantity than the United States publicly provides to the public. Offers.
They are not war plans and provide no details about the planned Ukrainian offensive. Some inaccuracies have also led some to question the document’s authenticity, such as estimates of Russian military casualties being significantly lower than those publicly announced by U.S. officials.
Andriy Yusov, spokesman for the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Service, told Ukrainian television: “It is very important to remember that in recent decades the most successful operations of the Russian special services have been conducted in Photoshop. Important to. “From our preliminary analysis of these materials, we see erroneous and distorted figures for losses on both sides, with some of the information gleaned from open sources.”
Separately, however, the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a statement on Friday about a meeting he had with senior military staff, saying: We focused on measures to of Ukraine. “
However, if the published documents are somewhat genuine, the leak of sensitive data is troubling and raises questions about what other information about the war in Ukraine might be distributed or about upcoming attacks. U.S. officials on Friday did not clarify the origin of the documents, their veracity or, in fact, who originally posted them online.
The New York Times first reported on the document. late Friday, The Times reported more documents Not only Ukraine, but other sensitive national security topics such as China and the Middle East have started popping up on social media.
Sabrina Singh, a Department of Defense spokesperson, would only say, “We are aware of reports of social media posts and the Department of Defense is reviewing the matter.”
The Department of Justice released a statement Friday night saying it “has been in contact with the Department of Defense regarding this matter and has initiated an investigation.”
A U.S. official said the documents resembled data produced daily by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, although some figures were incorrect. Even if they were legitimate, the United States believes the documents have little real intelligence value, as much of the information Russia already knows or can glean from the battlefield. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence documents.
Charts and graphs show battlefield conditions on both sides a month ago, U.S. military movements over the past 24 hours, personnel numbers, and local weather forecasts.
But I have an error. Under the section titled “Total Assessed Losses”, one document lists between 16,000 and 17,500 Russian casualties and up to 71,000 Ukrainian casualties. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, publicly said last November that Russia had lost more than 100,000 troops “well,” and Ukraine had lost a similar number. These estimates have continued to rise in recent months, although officials have stopped providing more precise figures.
