En ukrainsk soldat fyrer av et antitankvåpen i den ukrainske Donetsk-regionen. Foto: Vadim Ghirda / AP / NTB.

Graderte dokumenter som detaljert forklarer USAs og NATOs planer for oppbyggingen av Ukrainas militære før en fremtidig offensiv mot Russland, er blitt postet til sosiale medier, opplyser høytstående amerikanske tjeneste­personer til New York Times.

Dokumentene, som ser ut til å ha vært avfotografert, inneholdt blant annet opplysninger om planlagte våpenleveranser:

But the disclosures in the original documents, which appear as photographs of charts of anticipated weapons deliveries, troop and battalion strengths, and plans, represents a significant breach of U.S. intelligence in the effort to aid Ukraine.

Men ikke om planlagte angrep:

The documents do not provide specific battle plans, like how, when and where Ukraine intends to launch its offensive. And because the documents are five weeks old, they offer a snapshot of time — the American and Ukrainian view, as of March 1, of what Ukrainian troops might need for the campaign.

Opplysningene antas likevel å være nyttige for Russland:

To the trained eye of a Russian war planner, field general or intelligence analyst, however, the documents no doubt offer many tantalizing clues. The documents mention, for instance, the expenditure rate of HIMARS — U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System munitions, which can launch attacks against targets like ammunition dumps, infrastructure and concentrations of troops, from a distance. The Pentagon has not said publicly how fast Ukrainian troops are using the HIMARS munitions; the documents do.

Tall på antall falne i krigen i de lekkede dokumentene ser ut til å ha blitt modifisert, hevdes det:

Military analysts said the documents appear to have been modified in certain parts from their original format, overstating U.S. estimates of Ukrainian war dead and understating estimates of Russian troops killed.

One of the slides said 16,000 to 17,500 Russian soldiers had been killed while Ukraine had suffered as many as 71,500 troop deaths. The Pentagon and other analysts have estimated that Russia has suffered far more casualties, and that closer to 200,000 soldiers on each side had been killed or wounded.

Pentagon har iverksatt en granskning av hvem som kan ha lekket dokumentene, som har dukket opp på Twitter og Telegram og ellers benyttes for det de er verdt i russisk propaganda, skriver New York Times.

Den amerikanske avisen er hyppig blitt benyttet til målrettede informasjons­operasjoner fra det amerikanske sikkerhets­apparatets side.

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