(Washington) U.S. intelligence has cast doubts on a potential Ukrainian counteroffensive that might achieve only “modest territorial gains” once morest Russian forces, according to a leaked classified document, the Washington Post.
The document was made public during the online leak of many other classified documents, revealed Thursday by the New York Times.
Among these documents, one takes stock of the state of the conflict in Ukraine at the beginning of March, others evoke the situation on specific fronts, such as Bakhmout, or the crucial anti-aircraft defenses of Kyiv.
A vast Ukrainian counter-offensive once morest Russian troops is expected in the spring.
Ukraine claims to have formed assault brigades and stored ammunition while striving to spare its troops and exhaust those of its adversary on the front, ahead of this offensive. 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,” says the US intelligence document, classified as a top secret by the US. Washington Post.
Another leaked document claims that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-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”, reported the Washington Post in a separate article.
But the United States denied the information, stating that it “has no indication that such a project has been carried out”, according to a senior US government official.
“Egypt is a close partner and we regularly engage with its leaders on a wide range of regional and global issues,” the senior official 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.
The leak poses a “very serious” national security risk to the United States, the Pentagon said on Monday.
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.
