“Ukraine – Russia”

WASHINGTON — A surprisingly large number of people potentially had access to the Pentagon intelligence documents leaked on a social media site in early March, but clues left online may help investigators narrow down the pool of possible suspects relatively quickly, U.S. officials said on Monday.

A series of critical questions hinge on the investigation: not just who took the documents and posted them online, but also why and what kind of damage the release of the material might have done.

“We don’t know who is behind this; we don’t know what the motive is,” said John F. Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman. “We don’t know what else might be out there.”

The leak of a trove of classified U.S. military documents, some of which began to spread on chat platforms in recent weeks and more of which have emerged since, has spooked officials around the world — none more so than in Washington, as the defense and intelligence establishment scrambles to assess the damage and the Justice Department looks for answers.

The documents offer an unvarnished look at high-level U.S. assessments of the war in Ukraine, including tactical information about Ukrainian forces ahead of an expected spring offensive. But the impact may be broader-reaching, with some documents detailing apparent U.S. intelligence-gathering targeting allies, including South Korea and Israel.

Meanwhile in Chinada …

Canada will likely wait for U.S. to investigate leaks: expert

OTTAWA – A national security expert says Canada will likely wait for American security services to investigate and brief Ottawa on an apparent release of Pentagon documents onto social media sites appearing to detail U.S. and NATO operations in Ukraine.

Wesley Wark, a senior fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation, says Canadian officials will want to learn from Americans the seriousness of the leak and the specific information pertaining to Canada contained within the documents.

Those who know where it will happen and when are not saying. Those who speculate don’t know. But from the top of the military apparatus to the men and women on the front lines, everyone says a Ukrainian counteroffensive is coming. President Zelensky wants to capitalise on high morale after his army’s successes of late last year and exploit western enthusiasm to send arms.

Across the long front lines of the war, the guns are starting to fall silent. But that does not mean there is peace. “The pace of shelling has lowered dramatically over the last two months,” said Lientenant Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian army’s southern command. “They are down to 200 to 300 shells per day from 2,000 to 3,000, just on the Kherson front.”

At the Lychakiv cemetery in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv the bodies keep the score.

Within its confines the more than 300,000 graves offer a tangled insight into the labyrinthine history of this eastern European city that even now goes by four different names.

There are Polish generals, mathematicians and philosophers; Ukrainian composers, theologians and playwrights; Soviet and Russian aviators, inventors and academics.

Crouching in a freezing basement or risking it all on top of a nine-storey building, the drone squads in the war zone of Bakhmut are ubiquitous. Some are forced to lurk a few hundred metres from, or even on, the frontline. Without them, Ukraine’s efforts to hold on to the embattled city would be much harder, perhaps impossible.

But the concern for Ukraine, according to three frontline drone operators deployed in the city over the winter, is that the Russians are close to countering the most popular models in operation, those made by the Chinese manufacturer DJI. “They’re adept and they are manufacturing these special jamming systems,” said Yaroslav, 31.

#Ukraine: A Russian BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle was destroyed by Ukrainian fire near Vodyane, #Donetsk Oblast.

Two more Russian BMP-1 destroyed previously can also be observed. pic.twitter.com/KflwNkGHKD

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 9, 2023

Kyiv’s strategy is more likely to be to make its retention untenable

Crimea matters to Russians — whether they adore or abhor Vladimir Putin — in a way none of the other claimed or occupied Ukrainian territories do, and as such the peninsula’s fate will probably be central to any eventual resolution of the current war. That some Ukrainian sources are now talking about a military reconquest in the summer campaign season and others of diplomatic solutions suggests the possibility of movement.

#Ukraine: A low-flying Russian aircraft, apparently a Su-25 attack jet, was shot down by Ukrainian forces near Marinka, #Donetsk Oblast.

From the footage, it appears that the pilot managed to eject. pic.twitter.com/49b0bmixyP

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 7, 2023

Last year, Vitaly spent his 50th birthday in a jail cell.

The activist, from the southern Russian region of Krasnodar, was arrested and jailed on 24 February 2022, the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The former Russian army officer had gone out to protest that day in clothes emblazoned with the words “No to Putin!” and “No to the war!”

The view from the Ukrainian town of Ochakiv appears idyllic. Beyond the beach, a narrow strip of land stretches out across the sea. The peninsula in Mykolaiv province is known as the Kinburn spit. In happier times holidaymakers would take a boat from Ochakiv and camp among the dunes. The nature reserve is home to swans, pelicans and migrating birds.

Leaked Documents Reveal Depth of U.S. Spy Efforts and Russia’s Military Struggles

WASHINGTON — A trove of leaked Pentagon documents reveals how deeply Russia’s security and intelligence services have been penetrated by the United States, demonstrating Washington’s ability to warn Ukraine about planned strikes and providing an assessment of the strength of Moscow’s war machine.

The documents paint a portrait of a depleted Russian military that is struggling in its war in Ukraine and of a military apparatus that is deeply compromised. They contain daily real-time warnings to American intelligence agencies on the timing of Moscow’s strikes and even its specific targets. Such intelligence has allowed the United States to pass on to Ukraine crucial information on how to defend itself.

#Ukraine: In #Donetsk Oblast, a Russian 2S3 Akatsiya 152mm self-propelled howitzer was destroyed by Ukrainian forces – possibly using a UK-donated Brimstone missile.

A Polish WB FlyEye UAV was used to track the SPH before it was obliterated. pic.twitter.com/SUucJVxzMi

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 8, 2023

In the dead of night last October a Ukrainian special forces team boarded a 40ft armoured patrol boat, taking up positions at its three heavy machineguns and Mk19 automatic grenade launcher.

They were among nearly 600 elite troops scattered along the north bank of the Dnipro River, which carves through Zaporizhzhia region. The teams boarded more than 30 vessels bristling with weapons, formidable gifts from friends in the West.

Their orders: to launch an assault to recapture the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from the Russians on the opposite bank.

Ukraine and Russia continue to slug it out in the area of the eastern city of Bakhmut, with the Ukrainian military saying that “more than 40” Russian attacks had occurred along the front in the last 24 hours. At the same time, the U.S. government is investigating the leak of documents including details of U.S. and NATO plans to provide military aid for a possible Ukrainian offensive in the coming weeks.

#Ukraine: Yet another 2S9 Nona 120mm self-propelled mortar was destroyed by the Ukrainian 128th Territorial Defence Battalion and the tactical group "Adam" in Klishchiivka near Bakhmut, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/3lSn4KcIbU

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 7, 2023