

Patel added that there is “no question” the documents’ release presents a risk to national security. officials declined to provide any specifics, including about the expanse of the release, how it happened and to which foreign leaders the United States has spoken. Ukraine said Russia freed 100 Ukrainian prisoners. Russia said 106 of its soldiers were released.


Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have gone home in a prisoner swap. World & Nation Ukraine and Russia each send home about 100 troops in prisoner swap officials “are engaging with allies and partners at high levels over this, including to reassure them of our commitment to safeguarding intelligence and the fidelity of securing our partnerships.” And those estimates have continued to climb since, although officials have stopped providing more exact numbers.Īt the State Department, spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters Monday that U.S. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said publicly in November that Russia had lost “well over” 100,000 soldiers and Ukraine had lost about that many. One document lists 16,000 to 17,500 Russian casualties and up to 71,000 Ukrainian casualties. He and others would not go into detail, but at least one of the documents shows estimates of Russian troop deaths in the Ukraine war that are significantly lower than numbers publicly stated by U.S. authorities go through the documents that were posted online, they are still trying to determine their validity, but they have found that at least some of the papers “have been doctored.” Kirby said at this point, “we don’t know who’s behind this, we don’t know what the motive is.”Īnd he said as U.S. The department is looking closely at “how this type of information is distributed and to whom,” Meagher said, but he would not say whether steps had been taken to tighten control over who can access it. In the days since, Austin has reached out to allies, held daily meetings to assess the damage and set up a group not only to assess the scope of the information lost but review who has access to those briefings. military efforts in the war and intelligence involving other nations were leaked. Austin III first became aware Thursday that a number of classified briefing slides detailing the U.S. government, the White House said there are concerns there could be additional leaks.Ĭhris Meagher, assistant to the secretary of Defense for public affairs, told reporters that Defense Secretary Lloyd J. And as the public airing of the data sends shock waves across the U.S. The online leaks of scores of highly classified documents about the war in Ukraine present a “very serious” risk to national security, and senior leaders are quickly taking steps to mitigate the damage, a top Pentagon spokesman said Monday.
