CNN
- 27 Apr 2023
- international
Ukraine has been forced to modify some of its military plans ahead of a long-awaited counterattack due to a leak of classified U.S. documents, CNN reported, citing a source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukrainian officials had told Reuters on Friday that the allegedly leaked documents contained false information and resembled a Russian disinformation campaign.
US officials are scrambling to find the source of this leak of classified documents covering a wide range of topics, from Ukraine's air defenses to Israel's Mossad spy agency.
Reuters points out that it has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the documents.
Asked about the CNN report, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said that Ukraine's strategic plans remain the same, but more concrete tactical plans are always subject to change.
"There are strategic objectives - they remain unchanged," he told Reuters.
"But operational and tactical scenarios are constantly being refined, based on assessment of the battlefield situation, resource procurement, intelligence data on enemy assets, etc.," he said.
"At this time it is impossible to re-evaluate plans because they are now being processed," he added.
Oleksii Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, told Reuters: "We are working on our plans... We are not interested in the opinion of people who have nothing to do with this... The circle of people who have information is extremely limited."
Some experts said the source of the leak may be American.
"We are now focusing on the scenario that it was leaked from the US, as many of the documents were only in the hands of the US," Michael Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official, told Reuters in an interview.
