On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin acknowledged that authorities did not know who had access to records posted online in February and March.
Over the past few months, dozens of classified documents about the conflict in Ukraine have surfaced on Discord and Telegram. These documents cover a wide range of topics, including the Ukrainian army’s reconstruction plans and identified gaps in its defenses. Despite earlier claims that NATO states had forces on the ground in the crisis area, one of the documents claimed that NATO countries had a small number of special operations troops in Ukraine.
The records are dated February 28, March 1, as far as we know. During a press conference, Austin said: “I don’t know if there are any other documents that have already been posted. These are things that we will learn as we investigate. But the February 28 and March 1 documents, which we have focused on so far. Again, we will continue to examine this to see what the full extent of the behavior is.
Some of them were available online, according to Austin. “We don’t know exactly where or who had access at that time. At the moment, we just don’t know.
On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and launched a huge assault there. The United States has provided Ukraine with nearly $100 billion in aid, and after announcing in December that a battery of MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missiles would be delivered to that country, it said in January that they would send 31 M1 Abrams main battle tanks.
