Leaked classified documents detailing U.S. national security secrets regarding Ukraine, China and the Middle East reportedly show how deeply the Pentagon has infiltrated Russian intelligence services.
The documents, which appeared on Twitter, Telegram, the 4chan message board and elsewhere on Friday, contain warnings to US intelligence agencies about Russian attacks on Ukraine, and even details the specific targets intended. reported the Latest York Times.
Additionally they depict how the war has ravaged each side of the conflict – illustrating the Russian military that is each vulnerable and depleted, and the Ukrainian army that is in need of air defense ammunition.
The key documents also reportedly reveal US efforts to spy on Ukraine’s top political and military leaders and a plan developed with NATO to assist Ukraine launch a counterattack.
Considered one of the leaks comprises “a secret plan to arrange and equip nine brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces by the US and NATO for the spring offensive,” reported the Telegram account that published the documents.
In parallel with the Department of Defense investigation, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into the leaks.
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said the Department of Defense had “submitted a proper referral” to the Department of Justice on the matter.
“We have now been in touch with the Department of Defense regarding this matter and have launched an investigation,” a Department of Justice spokesman confirmed.
Individually, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had met with senior military personnel to debate “measures to forestall information leakage.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are holding on to the key city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donbass region, where Moscow is threatening a significant supply route, the British Ministry of Defense said on Friday.
“The Russians have made further progress and have now entered the city center with high probability,” the Defense Ministry said in Saturday’s Every day Intelligence.
“Ukraine’s key supply route 0506 west of the city is prone to be severely compromised.”
Fighting also raged in other parts of the country, including in Adviivka, about 100 miles south of Bakhmut, where Russian forces bombed a chemical plant, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Oblast Military Administration, wrote on Telegram.
While fighting continues in Ukraine, peace talks have stalled.
Zelensky said the fight with Russia would only end after Ukraine regained Crimea, the southern peninsula occupied by Russia since 2014, though the West called on Chinese President Xi Jinping to assist negotiate a peace deal between the warring countries.
Zelensky made the statement during a late Friday speech after declaring Ramadan with the head of state of Ukraine at the Crimean Tatar cultural center in Kiev.
“The world should know: respect and order will return to diplomacy only when the Ukrainian flag returns to Crimea, when freedom reigns there – as all over the place in Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky’s comments got here a day after his envoy in Crimea said that Russia has two options – abandon Crimea or join the fight.
“With the intention to minimize Ukrainian military losses, to reduce threats to civilians living in the occupied territories, and to destroy civilian infrastructure, Ukraine plans to provide Russia a alternative on how one can leave Crimea,” said Tamila Tasheva. he told Politico.
“Unless they comply with leave the country voluntarily, Ukraine will proceed to liberate its land by military means.”
Meanwhile, some Western countries are calling on China to assist end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
French leader Emmanuel Macron urged Xi to barter the deal during his visit to Beijing this week.
“I do know I can count on you to bring Russia to its senses and produce everyone back to the negotiating table,” Macron told his Chinese counterpart, who said France and China had the “ability and responsibility” to guard world peace, reported the BBC.
China has already issued its own own peace planbut Western countries criticized it, claiming it favored Russia.
Russia said China had “very effective and dominant mediation potential” but peace talks had completely stalled.
“The situation with Ukraine is complex, to this point there is no such thing as a prospect of a peaceful solution,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Russia “has no alternative but to proceed the war.”