The US Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into the leak of dozens of secret Pentagon documents about Ukraine, the Middle East and China. This is reported by the Financial Times, citing sources.
The Pentagon said it continues to evaluate the authenticity of photos of documents that are distributed on social networks. At the same time, the documents, apparently, contain secret and top secret materials, the department stressed. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh clarified that US agencies are now assessing the impact the documents could have on the national security of the United States and allies of the United States. Now the authorities are trying to determine the source of the leak, according to one version of the Pentagon, a US citizen may be behind this.
The leaked data includes slides for agency briefings, some of which are likely to be specially prepared for the Pentagon Joint Staff, while others contain intelligence data for daily briefings. In addition to information about the war in Ukraine, the documents contain references to China, Iran, South Korea and Israel. Some documents indicate that Ukraine's air defense is especially vulnerable, air defense missile stockpiles are declining, but air defense has so far kept Russia from making a decision on a significant participation of the air force in the war.
Earlier, the NYT reported that 100 new secret US documents about Ukraine, the Middle East and China were leaked to the network. A map of the fighting in Bakhmut was published on the anonymous 4chan forum. One of the leaked documents is dated February 23 and marked "Secret". The publication's experts noted that the leak could cause significant damage to a number of countries, including Ukraine and its military plans.
