The leadership in Kiev is massively annoyed: for days, US media have been publishing articles and videos about allegedly leaked US secret documents on the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Because the whole world now has access to more than 50 top-secret Pentagon papers, which contain, among other things, sensitive information about internal processes and conditions in the Ukrainian military, Ukraine is forced to change its war plans.
US officials say the content of at least one of the dozens of pages has changed. Nevertheless, they confirm the authenticity of the documents, which reveal numerous weaknesses in the Ukrainian military. Above all, however, they show that the country could soon run out of weapons.
Are Kyiv running out of rockets?
Specifically, the “New York Times” and the “Wall Street Journal” said that according to the documents, Kiev was in danger of running out of certain anti-aircraft missiles. According to an alleged Pentagon document dated February 28, Ukraine could have completely used up its inventory of Buk missiles by April 13 and those of S-300 missiles by May 3. The document refers to the consumption rates at that time; it is unclear whether the values have changed in the meantime.
But the fact is that Ukraine has long been demanding more ammunition and weapons for the war against Russia, and its allies in Europe are only half-heartedly delivering on their much-heralded arms deliveries.
“Very high” security risk
It is also unclear who published the documents. The US government is already searching intensively for the originator.
According to government sources, the variety of issues raised in the papers, which relate to the war in Ukraine, China, the Middle East and Africa, suggests they were passed on by an American rather than an ally.
The publication of secret US documents on the Internet is “a very high risk to national security,” said a spokesman for the US Department of Defense on Monday. It could be the most serious breach of secrets since 2013, when hundreds of thousands of documents, videos and internals appeared on the WikiLeaks website.
