DOJ investigates leak of classified Pentagon documents

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it has opened an investigation into the leak of classified documents from the Pentagon. Among the stolen material is confidential information on the U.S. and NATO’s assistance to Ukraine and a sensitive analysis on China and other countries. Russian sources shared these documents on social networks, such as Twitter.

The leak contains dozens of photographs of classified documents dated back to late February and early March, ranging from global intelligence reports through to tactical level updates of the battlefield. There were also assessments of Ukraine's defense capabilities and information on the Ukrainian and Russian armies. In addition, some of the documents include highly sensitive U.S. analyses of China and other countries. They also include highly classified sources and methods used by U.S. Intelligence to gather this type of information. The latter is what most alarmed the national security officials who have seen them.

Investigation into whether documents were tampered with before going public

DOJ and the Pentagon are investigating which documents were stolen and how they were able to get them. Although the Defense Department has tried to limit the significance of the leaks, it is looking into whether the material was edited to cause disinformation before going public. Suspicions were aroused by the fact that the number of Russian soldiers killed in the war was significantly lower than what the military officials claim.

Andriy Yusov, spokesman for the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Directorate, made this statement in a televised interview in his country:

"Incredibly useful" for the Kremlin

Dmitri Alperovitch, president of Silverado Policy Accelerator told the The Washington Post that although the documents contain no concrete battle plans, the material is "incredibly useful" to the Kremlin. He said, “It literally has order of battle information — detail about the units that will be involved [in the forthcoming counteroffensive], their manning, equipment and training levels. … That information can be extremely beneficial for putting up a defense."