Top-secret pentagon documents seemingly packed with details about U.S. and NATO aid to Ukraine have started cropping up on social media sites in recent weeks, prompting the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into the potential leak.
The documents, all of them dated between Feb. 23 and March 1, include maps of Ukraine and charts on where troops are concentrated the types of weapons available to them.
The latest batch, which appeared on Twitter and several other websites on Friday, also included discussion on other sensitive national security topics outside of Ukraine, including in China and the Middle East.
The pages resemble routine updates that the U.S. military’s Joint Staff would produce daily but do not distribute publicly. They did not include details on any planned Ukraine offensive.
The alleged leaks were initially reported by the New York Times. Military analysts told the newspaper that the documents — more than 100 of which may have been obtained — appear genuine, but they suspect some have been altered in certain spots.
Experts cited several inaccuracies, including estimates of Russian troop deaths, which are significantly lower than numbers publicly stated by U.S. officials.
Under a section titled “Total Assessed Losses,” one document lists between 16,000 and 17,500 Russian casualties and up to 71,000 Ukrainian casualties. In November, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declared that Russia had lost “well over” 100,000 soldiers, with the Ukrainian death toll hovering around the same spot.
“It is very important to remember that in recent decades, the Russian special services’ most successful operations have been taking place in Photoshop,” Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate, said on Ukrainian TV.
“From a preliminary analysis of these materials, we see false, distorted figures on losses on both sides, with part of the information collected from open sources.”
A U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity echoed the sentiment. Investigators said they believe there is little real intelligence value to the documents, adding that much of the information Russia would likely already know.
Should the published documents prove authentic in any capacity, though, the ongoing threat of a leak is concerning and presents questions about what other information about the Ukraine war — or any future initiative — could make its way online.