WP: US data leak suspect ‘depressed’ by conflict in Ukraine

American Jack Douglas Teixeira, who is suspected of leaking secret Pentagon documents, considered the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine “depressing”, The Washington Post writes.

The publication says that the journalists of the publication talked with acquaintances of the 21-year-old Teixeira, who read the materials published by him in the Discord messenger.

One of the friends of the young man, who serves in the Air Force of the National Guard, said that they started uploading secret documents on the Discord server approximately in February 2022, immediately after the start of the special operation to protect Donbass.

Teixeira, his friends said, found the fighting between Russia and Ukraine “depressing”. He believed that Moscow and Kyiv “should have more in common than what separates them.”

The young man thought that by publishing this data he was enlightening his acquaintances, the newspaper writes.

The Washington Post also previously wrote, citing Teixeira’s comrades, that he “did not take sides” in the conflict.

Earlier it was reported that US law enforcement officials continued their investigation at Teixeira’s home.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Teixeira was the creator of a group on the Discord platform that distributed classified material.

The department’s information was leaked on April 6 and 8. The documents provided details about the Ukrainian army and plans for its armament by NATO and allied countries. At the same time, there is distrust about the veracity, since the President of Serbia, which was on the list of countries that sent weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said that the state did not supply and was not going to supply weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.

In addition, as journalists note, the information leaked to the Network caused a lot of problems for the Ukrainian army, since the documents contained information that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were not sufficiently prepared for the counteroffensive, which was being prepared in April. That is why Ukraine had to change its “military plans”. According to the Pentagon documents, the approximate losses of the Ukrainian side were also estimated, which amounted to more than 120,000 soldiers.

As journalists from the NYT noted, due to the leakage of this kind of information, the United States has problems in relations with allies who doubt that the States will be able to store information important to them.