Leakage of secret Pentagon documents: what is known about the large-scale “flow” of information

On April 7, the American edition of The New York Times published an article stating that secret US Department of Defense documents relating to the war in Ukraine had been leaked to the network. More and more information is coming out about it every day. Focus He collected everything known about the data leak: when it was published, whether it was a fake by the Russians, and how it affected Ukraine and the counteroffensive.

Pentagon’s leaked “secret documents” – what has come to light in the public domain

In the first wave of broadcasting, journalists found a schedule for the supply of weapons, as well as data on the increase in the strength of the Ukrainian army before the counterattack, data on the losses of both sides. It is worth noting right away that at least one of the letters is fake. It was noteworthy that where the losses of the Ukrainian army were indicated, the figures were overestimated, and on the contrary, the Russians were underestimated. Analysts described the changes in the documents as Moscow’s attempt at disinformation.

The documents leaked to the Internet mention:

• Pentagon oversight for the Russian Federation;
• listen to allies by the Pentagon;
• The state of the air defense in Ukraine;
• listening to President Volodymyr Zelensky;
• US competition with China;
• Wagner PMC mercenaries wanting to buy weapons from Turkey for the war against Ukraine and operations in Mali.

In total, about 100 Pentagon documents entered the Network.

Leaking the “secret documents” of the Pentagon – when the information appeared on the Web

OSINT group Molfar conducted an investigation into the leak of information from the Pentagon. They found evidence that the documents could be forged. They put forward several arguments:

• the parties are close to the statistics of the Oryx project, which keeps records of equipment and manpower losses, equipment losses based on photographic and video records;
• published only a few letters of confidential documents of at least 24 pages;
• post-editing of some photos;
• grammatical errors in text and incorrect date formats in documents;
• Dissemination of information on pro-Russian sources.

Bellingcat also investigated where “classified data” first appeared. It turned out that in January 2023, the first documents appeared on the Discord servers. Then they were posted on the anonymous image board 4Chan. At the same time, the documents were posted on the Minecraft World Map server on Discord. The author stated that he found the documents on another WowMao Discord server dedicated to a YouTube channel of the same name. Additionally, some users note that even more leaked documents are found on the Thug Shaker Central server. But the names are constantly changing. Discord is cooperating with the US investigation.

In early April, Russian Telegram channels, especially Donbass Devushka, began distributing documents on April 5 at 21:29 Kiev time.

Leaked secret Pentagon documents – what they say in the West

An investigation has been launched into the leaking of classified documents in the United States. The US Department of Justice states that the data may have been heavily modified for propaganda purposes. Details at the Department of Justice have not started to be spoken, but they noted that they are investigating the leak in close contact with the US Department of Defense. The Pentagon is also conducting its own investigation.

Reuters sources claim that Russians or pro-Russian forces may be behind the leak of classified documents. Officials say the documents do not contain information about plans for a counterattack against Ukraine.

The West is also examining other documents on the US’s relations with Israel and South Korea, and Turkey’s influence. Among other things, it turned out that the Pentagon was listening to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian leader allegedly offered to attack the Russian Armed Forces in the Rostov region with drones, since Ukraine does not have long-range weapons for such attacks.

Basically, the authorities say that the classified documents could be real. However, this should determine the investigation.

Does leaking secret Pentagon documents affect UAF counterattack?

On April 7, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that they should wait for the results of the investigation in the USA. However, Andrey Yusov states that Russian special services have carried out the most successful operations on Photoshop in recent years. Some information is clearly gathered from open sources. At the same time, the representative of the GUR, the association’s Do not worry about the counterattack, the Russian troops will feel all his plans.

CNN sources say Ukraine had to change some of its plans after the Pentagon documents were leaked. The Pentagon also predicted that the war in Donbass would likely reach a stalemate in 2023. Therefore, it will be difficult for Ukraine to achieve success on the battlefield.

At the same time, Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Presidency, claims that the data “leak” was part of the Russian information campaign. Invaders can pursue three disinformation purposes:

• divert attention from actual preparations for the next phase of the war;
• arouse suspicion and distrust among Ukraine’s allies in order to reduce cooperation;
• to make a division in internal processes in Ukraine in preparation for the offensive.