The documents may have been deliberately concealed, a senior Russian diplomat has suggested
The leak of Pentagon documents could be part of a campaign by Washington to decry Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
“Because the United States is a party to the conflict [in Ukraine] and basically waging a hybrid war against us, such tricks to deceive the enemy, i.e. Russia, are possible,” Ryabkov told reporters on Wednesday. “I’m not saying anything definitive, but I guess different scenarios are plausible here.”
The diplomat acknowledged that genuine classified documents have been leaked in the past. However, he added that “How much of the current buzz and reports are grounded in reality is an open question for me personally.”
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday the government was on the run “very seriously” and would be “Flip Every Rock” during his investigation of how so-called top secret files ended up online.
The leaked files include intelligence memos on various countries, as well as a daily report on the disposition of Ukrainian army units and the timetable for training Kyiv troops abroad. A document quoted by the media suggested that Washington was spying on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Another provided new details about the October 2022 incident involving British and Russian warplanes over the Black Sea.
In a statement on Sunday, the Pentagon confirmed that at least some files “appear to contain sensitive and highly classified material.” However, some countries questioned the accuracy of the information presented in the documents.
A British defense source told the Financial Times that the reports ‘contain inaccuracies and do not reflect what happened in international airspace over the Black Sea’.
Israel, meanwhile, rejected claims made in a leaked filing that its Mossad intelligence agency was encouraging anti-government protests inside the country.
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