WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Ukraine\u2019s leaders say they don\u2019t see a major U.S. intelligence leak as gravely damaging future offensives. A key reason: They have long held back on sharing their most sensitive operational information, doubting Washington\u2019s ability to keep their secrets safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukrainian and U.S. officials said this week that only Ukrainians know some battle plans and other operational information, not the Americans, their most important ally. That means the leak of secret military documents, including some assessing Ukraine\u2019s battlefield strengths and weaknesses against Russia, may not have been enough \u2014 so far \u2014 to change the course of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf military operations are planned, then only a very narrow circle of people know about the planning of the special operation,\u201d Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Wednesday on Ukrainian television. \u201cThe risk of leaks is very minimal\u201d for the most important war matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, the U.S. sees the leaks as grave. The documents include previously unreported sensitive disclosures about Ukraine, South Korea, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and others. Senior Biden administration officials are working to stop the flow of classified information onto social media and websites and head off any lasting damage to relationships with allies and strategic partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And more damaging material could still surface. Leaked documents are continuing to appear online, and future revelations may be more detrimental to Ukraine than the ones that have been publicized so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Russia is making clear that it is avidly studying each spilled secret. \u201cQuite interesting,\u201d Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the leaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, online Russian-language discussions groups showed Russian military bloggers arguing over whether the leaks themselves are U.S. disinformation, intended to mislead Russia by creating an impression that Ukraine\u2019s military is vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukrainian officials and ordinary Ukrainians have made clear they could afford no open split over the leaks with the United States, which has given Ukraine more than $100 billion in military and civilian support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is a pity that such things happen,\u201d said one woman, Nataliia Maltseva, in Kyiv, where many people said their thoughts were on matters other than the U.S. intelligence breach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But \u201cI trust Joe Biden, I know that he is an experienced person who loves Ukraine. I am sure that everything will only get better,\u201d Maltseva said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secrecy in one vital area, Ukraine\u2019s plans for any upcoming offenses to repel Russian forces, remains unbreached, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters in Washington on Tuesday after speaking with his Ukrainian counterpart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey have a great plan … but only President Zelenskyy and his leadership really know the full details of that plan,\u201d the U.S. defense chief said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukrainian civilian and military chiefs \u2014 speaking in European and North American capitals on their continual tours to round up the Western arms and cash to keep Ukraine\u2019s fight going \u2014 responded to questions about whether the leaks would harm relations with the United States by saying that unity among allies was one of Ukraine\u2019s most vital war needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The details disclosed \u201care not pleasant to hear,\u201d Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told reporters in Madrid on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is a lot of information that is not true,\u201d Reznikov added, without elaborating. \u201cAnd the true information has already lost its relevance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He called the leaks a purposeful information operation, benefiting Russia, with an aim \u201cto lower the level of trust between the allies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Concerns over the impact of the U.S. intelligence leaks came up \u201ceverywhere\u201d in meetings with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv on Wednesday, said Sen. Joe Manchin. The West Virginia Democrat was accompanied by Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska as well as country music singer Brad Paisley on a one-day official visit that included meetings with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The leaks include photographs of paper documents creased by folding. U.S. defense officials say information on some of the papers has been altered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The documents show real-time details from February and March of Ukraine\u2019s and Russia\u2019s battlefield positions and precise numbers of battlefield gear lost and newly flowing into Ukraine from its allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also reveal just how close Ukraine\u2019s vital air defense systems are to running out of missiles \u2014 with stocks expected to be exhausted as soon as late this month or May, absent significant resupply. That would open Ukraine\u2019s skies to more of the Russian air and artillery strikes that already have devastated cities and infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, speaking to reporters in Toronto before arriving for talks with Austin in Washington on Wednesday, played down the danger, expressing optimism that Ukraine would get the new stocks of the Soviet-era air defense missiles it needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur air defense will be very effective,\u201d Shmyhal told Canada\u2019s CTV. \u201cWe will have all the equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the leaked information was more detailed, Ukraine and its allies have been warning publicly about the desperate resupply needs of Ukraine\u2019s air defense system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Sipher, a former senior CIA official and expert on Russia, said while the leak of classified information is \u201cdespicable,\u201d he doesn\u2019t think it really hurts Ukraine\u2019s war effort. The intelligence community\u2019s most protected and sensitive secrets typically don\u2019t wind up on the kind of Defense Department summaries that the documents appear to be, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And since much of the information from Russia appears to come from signal intelligence \u2014 electronic monitoring of communication and weapons systems \u2014 \u201cit is really hard for Russia to change its procedures and equipment on the fly during a war,\u201d Sipher said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak described the leaks regarding the war assessments as free of actual operational information, and partly fake. Ukraine\u2019s strategy and tactics are developed by the military command and that work was not directly damaged, he told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOperations scenarios are still in development because the front line is flexible and changes are made every day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ever since Russia invaded in February 2022, U.S. officials are reported to have commented on how close Ukrainian leaders kept their war secrets. One common complaint was that the Americans knew more about Russia\u2019s war status than they did about Ukraine\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the streets of Kyiv, another Ukrainian, Serhii Bos, expressed hope that \u201cour American partners\u201d were learning from the breach, but he said it would have no impact on Ukrainians\u2019 morale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNothing changes,\u201d he said. \u201cEverything remains as it is. We need to reclaim our lands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
___<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arhirova contributed from Kyiv. Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington, Ciaran Giles in Madrid and Samya Kullab in Kyiv contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ukraine\u2019s leaders say they don\u2019t see a major U.S. intelligence leak as gravely damaging future offensives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":106278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":10,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[10,29,16],"tags":[],"coauthors":[6930],"class_list":["post-30392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyber","category-home","category-it-networks"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"6N5J7FQOSJFVDBCYVMJUINFCEU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2023\/04\/13\/us-ukraine-say-many-war-secrets-safe-from-intel-leaks\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n