Pentagon Leak: Western special forces inside Ukraine and other key takeaways

A number of classified US documents are now circulating on the internet.

Covering timelines and scores of military acronyms, the documents – some marked “top secret” – offer critical information on China and allies and even paint a detailed picture of the war in Ukraine, including important details on Kyiv’s preparations for a spring counter-offensive.

While Pentagon officials are quoted as saying the classified documents are real, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation to find the source of the leak and the extent of it.

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News organisations across the globe have reviewed some of the documents and here are a couple of the key findings.

Western special forces inside Ukraine

One of the dozens of classified documents leaked online confirms what has been the subject of quiet speculation since the war began.

According to a document dated March 23, a small number of Western special forces are operating inside the war-ravaged country, with the UK having the largest contingent (50), followed by Latvia, France, the US, and the Netherlands.

But the document didn’t elaborate on where the forces are located or what activities they are involved in.

This critical information is likely to be seized upon by Russia, which has argued that it’s not just confronting Ukraine, but NATO as well.

Casualty figures are also listed in the documents. While one slide puts the number of soldiers killed or wounded in the war at 131,000 for Ukraine and 223,000 for Russia, some Ukrainian officials have dismissed the leaks, suggesting they might constitute a Russian disinformation campaign.

Egypt had secret plans to send rockets to Russia

The Washington Post was able to access a document from mid-February concerning Egypt’s plans to produce tens of thousands of rockets for Russia in secret. President Abdul Fatah al-Sisi told officials to keep the plan secret “to avoid problems with the West”, the Post said.

It was the least Egypt could do to repay Russia for an unspecified help earlier, an official was quoted as saying. A January report from Reuters said Russia’s share of Egyptian wheat imports had increased last year, providing a potential explanation.

There is no indication that Cairo went ahead with its plans. The allegation in the classified documents is “utterly baseless”, an unnamed official quoted on Egyptian news channels said, adding the country did not take sides in the year-long brutal invasion.