The leaked documents include a number of files, including those related to the war in Ukraine and analyzes from US intelligence agencies on Russia and several other countries, while some of them revealed NATO’s efforts to train and arm Ukrainian forces before the spring offensive..
According to Western reports, a trove of leaked documents detailing plans for a Ukrainian military offensive in the spring circulating online imply the presence of French soldiers on the battlefield..
He did not stop there, as one of the documents, which was classified as “top secret”, revealed that a small contingent of no more than 100 members of the special operations of NATO members France, America, Britain and Latvia, was already active in Ukraine on the ground..
The documents containing charts and details about expected weapons deliveries, brigades’ strength and “highly sensitive” information were also posted on social media..
Quick French response
- Immediately, the French Ministry of Defense denied the presence of French soldiers in Ukraine, according to documents attributed to the Pentagon and leaked to Russian networks in the past few days..
- French Defense Minister Sebastien Licorne told Le Monde newspaper that “there are no French forces involved in operations in Ukraine.”“.
- “Licorno” confirmed that “the aforementioned documents did not originate from the French army, and therefore he does not comment on those documents whose source has not been confirmed.”“.
- The Ukrainian authorities stressed that the leaked files contained “fake information”.“.
- According to military analysts, certain parts of the documents have been altered in order to exaggerate US estimates of the Ukraine war and underestimate the death toll of Russian troops..
- This coincided with French President Emmanuel Macron’s assertion that Europe should not become subordinate to the United States, during his trip back from China on a 3-day visit..
Hands-on support
Nearly 40,000 NATO soldiers are deployed in the military alliance’s member states in the war zone, such as the Baltic states and Poland, in addition to another 300,000 soldiers on high alert..
Extensive training of Ukrainian forces is also being conducted by NATO members outside the country, but no NATO member country has officially announced that it has contributed military personnel to fight in Ukraine..
European security expert at the Royal Institute of Defense Services specializing in defense and security research, Edward Arnold, said that there is no conclusive evidence of the participation of NATO forces in Ukraine..
Arnold said it was never the case for NATO commanders to direct Ukrainian units on the battlefield, but he did not rule it out as NATO seeks to mitigate the risk of escalation..
What did the Pentagon Papers include?
- Some of the Ukraine-related documents, marked “secret and top secret” and dated February and March, show US and NATO plans to train and arm Ukrainian forces ahead of a planned counteroffensive this spring..
- Photos of at least 10 pages of top-secret documents that were likely printed together on February 28 and March 2 have been published on Facebook. “Discord”It is a popular chat platform for electronic game players, before it was widely circulated on the Twitter and Telegram platforms“.
- One document includes detailed plans for equipment that Western countries will deliver to Ukraine this spring, such as the number of tanks and armored vehicles each country will send and the estimated date of arrival, and the status of training programs by NATO countries..
- Hours earlier, another set of more than 100 documents was posted on Twitter, which apparently revealed classified information obtained by US spy agencies, not only about Russia, but also about allies such as Israel and South Korea..
- One senior US official described the leak as “a massive intelligence breakthrough“.
- The leaked Pentagon documents contained confirmation that the leadership of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, encouraged citizens and its employees to participate in anti-government protests..
- The New York Times reported that the leaked documents contain details of private discussions between senior South Korean officials about US pressure on the Asian ally to help supply arms to Ukraine and Seoul’s policy not to do so..
- The US Department of Justice opened an investigation to try to determine the source of the leaked documents, and the Pentagon said it was investigating the matter.
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