The US Department of Defense document leak is the country’s most serious in several years.
20:34•Updated 20:34
Secret US documents became public last week when a newspaper The New York Times (you are moving to another service) was the first major media to report on the matter. The documents of the country’s Ministry of Defense have been available to read on the internet since March.
Read about what the data leak is about in this story.
1. What documents have been leaked?
The leaked documents are documents classified by the US Department of Defense that contain classified information. Some of the documents have been classified as top secret.
There are dozens of leaked documents. US Department of Defense officials have anonymously confirmed to multiple media outlets that the leaked documents are authentic.
2. What information is in the documents?
In particular, the documents contain US intelligence information about Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
The papers contain information, for example, about US and NATO plans to support Ukraine in its planned spring offensive. The documents contain detailed information on, for example, weapon deliveries to Ukraine and the strength of Ukrainian battalions.
The documents also reveal the concerns of the US administration, such as the fact that the US is worried about the lack of ammunition for the Ukrainian air defense.
In one document we will tell you in turn (you will switch to another service)that a Russian fighter almost shot down a British surveillance plane in the Black Sea last September.
3. Who leaked the documents?
The leaker of the documents is currently unknown. The US Department of Justice has started an investigation into the data leak.
The documents were leaked to the internet probably by a Russian or pro-Russian entity in the US administration that had access to classified information, three US officials told the news agency Reuters.
Editor of the investigative journalism network Bellingcat Aric Toler is told (you switch to another service)that the network has not been able to find out the leaker of the documents, but the leak of the first documents can be traced back to the beginning of March.
The US Department of Defense has said that it has tightened the security classification of the documents so that a smaller number of employees have access to them in the future.
4. What do the documents tell about US espionage?
Those in the documents the information shows (you switch to another service)that US intelligence and surveillance is extensive.
The United States has succeeded in infiltrating deep into Russia’s intelligence organizations and armed forces. Thanks to espionage, the United States has often been able to warn Ukraine in advance of attacks planned by Russia.
The documents also reveal that the United States has also spied extensively on its allies, such as South Korea, Israel and Ukraine.
One of the leaked documents shows that the US has also spied directly on the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
5. How does the leak affect the war in Ukraine?
The document leak benefits Russia, as it is able to deduce from the leaks how the United States has collected the information it shared with Ukraine.
The leak has also led to changes in Ukraine’s spring war plans, the news channel CNN reported (you will switch to another service) based on a source in President Zelensky’s inner circle.
However, the leaked documents do not specify the exact date or direction of the attack planned by Ukraine.