The Pentagon warns that the leak of secret documents about the war in Ukraine poses a "serious risk" to US security

A Ukrainian soldier, on April 1 in Hostomel, in the Kiev region. Europa Press / Contact / Volodymyr Tarasov (Europa Press / Contact / Volodymyr)

The leak of a hundred secret US military intelligence documents has exposed operational data on the war in Ukraine that could change the course of the fighting in the coming weeks, as well as the response of Western allies.

Its dissemination on the Internet poses "a very serious risk to national security and can potentially feed disinformation," Chris Meagher, a spokesman for the US Department of Defense, said on Monday.

The leak may also jeopardize US intelligence sources, as well as provide Russia with valuable information on the status and situation of Ukrainian troops.

According to Administration officials, the vast majority of the documents are authentic.

The documents were released online in January, according to

, and they had been circulating on social networks until last Friday, when the leak became known.

Among other details, they show maps of Ukraine's air defenses and an in-depth analysis of South Korea's secret plans, among those of other allies, to deliver 330,000 air defense rounds needed for Ukraine's spring counteroffensive, which plans they can be altered.

In fact, a source close to the Ukrainian presidency has assured CNN that the leak of the documents, the most serious since the publication by WikiLeaks of more than 700,000 diplomatic cables in 2013, forces a change in Kiev's offensive plans.

No Ukrainian political or military representative has wanted to officially comment on this point.

The novelty of secret and top secret documents, and the clues they offer about impending operations, makes them especially damaging, according to the Joe Biden Administration, given that some are only 40 days old.

The leak has been reported to congressional committees and referred to the Justice Department, which is investigating.

The more than 100 pages of images and information documents also confirm the involvement of the United States in the daily course of the war, providing the intelligence and logistics that would partly explain Ukraine's resistance to the Russian giant.

Although there are no US troops in combat and Washington has so far refused to send weapons with a range that could penetrate Russian territory, the documents make it clear that the US is a major player in the war.

The alleged weakness of Ukraine's anti-aircraft defense system in the face of an upcoming spring counteroffensive is the most relevant information in the trickle of hundreds of secret military intelligence documents.

The urgency of providing ammunition to reinforce the air defense has also caused, according to the cables, debates within governments allied to the US, such as those of South Korea and Israel, which are reluctant to send them.

In addition, the disclosure of these plans casts Washington under suspicion of spying on important allies in the campaign to support Ukraine.

A February 28 cable predicts that missile stocks for the Soviet-era S-300 and Buk air defense systems, which make up 89% of Ukraine's protection against most fighter jets and some bombers, They will be completely sold out between mid-April and May 3.

The cable also notes that air defenses protecting troops on the front line, where much of Russia's air power is concentrated, "will be completely reduced" by May 23.

In fact, a US defense official quoted by

has confirmed that the Pentagon was alarmed by the deterioration of air defense and that this has been a constant concern for months.

If the forecasts are confirmed, Moscow can take advantage of the vulnerability to change the course of the war.

The collapse of air defense would make it easier for Russian fighters to bomb key positions and targets on the ground, since they would have virtually expedited flight.

Until now, Moscow had resorted to the action of drones and missiles fired from Russian or Belarusian territory or of fighters concentrated in sorties along the front lines.

Russia continues to have considerable air capability, with some 900 fighters and about 120 bombers, according to the World Directory of Modern Military Aircraft.

Another leaked document puts the number of Russian warplanes currently deployed in the theater of operations at 485, compared to 85 Ukrainian planes.

The US Administration announced last week that it would send more interceptors and ammunition for the anti-aircraft system as part of a 2.6 billion dollar aid package (about 2.4 billion euros), part of which will be used to help Kiev in the offensive of spring.

Whether it meets Ukraine's needs will depend on several factors, one of which is whether NATO allies go along with the US reinforcement.

Washington's alleged pressure on partners such as South Korea and Israel has sparked internal debates, especially delicate in the latter case, since the shipment would contravene the current policy of the Jewish State in the midst of an internal crisis and would jeopardize the good relationship between the first Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

on Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service.

Secrecy in kyiv

Only five people know how, when and where the spring counteroffensive will take place.

This was stated on April 6 by Oleksii Danilov, secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, in an interview on

radio .

The leaked documents do not provide specific information about the moment or the locations on the front from which the Ukrainian troops will try to advance, but they do reveal sensitive information about the reinforcement with armored vehicles of nine mechanized brigades.

In fact, the distribution of Western tanks and armored infantry transports in those nine identified brigades is another of the most sensitive leaks.

Danilov himself wrote on his social networks on Monday that the media noise does not help the counterattack plans of late spring and early summer.

The secrecy is absolute and the importance is such that the army is applying new severe restrictions to the media to access its positions on the Donbas and southern front, so that information that could point to the enemy is not made public. Where are the forces concentrating?

The pro-Russian military analysis group Rybar reported this Sunday that Russian artillery had found an ammunition depot on the Zaporizhia front, where two Himars missile batteries were also located, in reserve for the future attack campaign.

The weather conditions in the spring months are adverse for the movement of heavy vehicles because the rural tracks are a quagmire in which the armored vehicles sink.

In addition to not having received enough artillery ammunition, the Ukrainian Armed Forces also does not yet have most of the nearly 200 tanks that its international allies have promised to deliver.

The leaked reports would also confirm the numbers of casualties in both Armies that were publicly considered by the intelligence services of NATO States: on the Russian side, until February there were between 189,500 and 223,000 casualties, of which 43,000 would be dead;

on the Ukrainian side, the casualties would range between 124,500 and 131,000 soldiers, of whom 17,500 would have died in combat.

These figures coincide with military theory, which indicates that the death toll ranges between one third and one tenth of the casualties, depending above all on the medical evacuation systems at the front.

However, at least one of the documents appears to have been modified to minimize Russian losses.

The cable, distributed on accounts of Russian military analysts on Telegram, a very popular messaging service in Russia,

16,000-17,500 Russians.

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