The US officials said the documents appeared to have been altered to reduce the number of casualties among Russian forces.
They added that their assessments were informal and not linked to an investigation into the leak itself.
The US officials asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter and declined to discuss details of the documents.
Secrets of American national security
- Later on Friday, a new set of classified documents appearing to detail US national security secrets emerged on social media.
- The Pentagon declined to comment on the authenticity of the documents.
- The first group, which was circulated on sites such as Twitter and Telegram, bears the date of the first of March and seals indicating its classification as “secret” and highly confidential.
- The leaking of such sensitive documents is highly unusual and would automatically lead to an investigation.
- “We are aware of reports of social media posts and the department is reviewing,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.
- A CIA spokesman said in a statement that the agency is also aware of the postings and is looking into the matter.
- One of the documents posted on social media stated that between 16,000 and 17,500 Russian soldiers have been killed since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, while officials say that the United States believes that the actual number is much higher and amounts to about 200,000 Russians killed and wounded. .
- The New York Times reported Thursday that the US Department of Defense is investigating how documents were released on social media this week detailing plans to reinforce Ukraine’s military in preparation for a planned counteroffensive.
- The Ukrainian forces were able to repel Russia’s advance towards Kiev at the beginning of the Russian operation, and the conflict, which Russia calls a “special military operation”, turned into a fierce trench war in the east and south, but the leak of documents came with increasing speculation about the nature of the attacks that Kiev and Moscow might try to launch in the second year. to war.
- The documents did not seem to give any specific information about Kiev’s war plans.
- A Ukrainian presidential official said the leaked documents contained “a very large amount of fictitious information” and that Russia was trying to regain the initiative in the process.
- “They are just ordinary elements of KGB games. Nothing more,” Mykhailo Podolyak stated in a written statement.
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