The heads of American diplomacy and defense exchanged with their Ukrainian counterparts on Tuesday as the United States seeks to reassure its allies, including Kiev, after the leak of classified documents from American intelligence.
While refusing to comment on the authenticity or content of the documents, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to tell him “continued support” from the United States.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also said he spoke with his counterpart Oleksiï Reznikov, reiterating that Washington takes the leak of classified documents “very seriously”.
According to press reports and documents seen by AFP on Tuesday, US intelligence has expressed doubts about a potential Ukrainian counter-offensive that could only achieve “modest territorial gains” against Russian forces.
These classified documents are among those that appeared online after a leak revealed Thursday by the New York Times and which the Pentagon considered that it represented a “very serious risk” for the national security of the United States.
“I was first briefed on the unauthorized release of these classified and sensitive documents on the morning of April 6,” said Austin, who was speaking at a joint news conference in Washington with the United States. Philippine foreign and defense ministers.
“Since then, I have invited department officials daily to review our response and ordered an internal investigation,” he said, recalling that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation.
“We take this very seriously and we continue to work closely with our allies and partners,” he said, adding that the documents in question dated from February 28 and March 1.
A Ukrainian counter-offensive against Russian troops is expected in the spring. Ukraine claims to have, upstream, formed assault brigades and stored ammunition while striving to spare its troops and exhaust those of its adversary on the front.
It also received combat tanks and long-range artillery from its Western supporters.
But robust Russian defenses and “continuing Ukrainian deficiencies in training and ammunition reserves are likely to strain any progress and compound casualties during the offensive,” a classified US intelligence document says, according to Washington. Post.
Another document, classified “secret” and seen by AFP, details the worrying state of Ukrainian air defenses, which have so far played a crucial role against Russian strikes, preventing Moscow from taking control of airspace. .
But the document, whose authenticity AFP could not immediately confirm, claims that 89% of Ukraine’s medium- and long-range defenses were made up of Soviet-era SA-10 and SA-11 systems, who could quickly run out of ammunition.
Based on the current rate of consumption of this ammunition, the SA-11 systems could be dry by the end of March, and the SA-10s by the beginning of May, the document adds.
Kyiv’s ability to maintain medium-range air defenses to protect the front line “will be reduced to zero by May 23”, the document concludes.
Another leaked document claims that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ordered the production of 40,000 rockets to be delivered to Russia, warning officials to keep such a project secret “to avoid problems with the West”, said reported the Washington Post in a separate article.
But the spokesperson for the National Security Council, a body directly attached to President Joe Biden, denied the information, stating that he had “no indication that Egypt is supplying lethal armament to Russia”.
“Egypt is and remains an important partner on security issues,” said spokesman John Kirby.
“The U.S. military has a longstanding defense relationship with Egypt,” he said.
The steady stream of photographs of classified documents have been discovered on Twitter, Telegram, Discord and other platforms in recent days, although some may have circulated online for weeks before attracting media attention.
Many of these documents are no longer available on the sites where they originally appeared, and US authorities are reportedly working to have them all removed.
12/04/2023 00:40:50 – Washington (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
