The US foreign and defense secretaries held a telephone conversation with their Ukrainian counterparts on Tuesday, as Washington tries to reassure its allies after the leak of classified US intelligence documents.

Although he declined to comment on the authenticity or content of these documents, Mr Anthony Blinken stated that he spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba to declare the US’s “continued support” for him.

The Minister of Defence Lloyd Austin he also pointed out that he had been in contact with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikovduring which he reiterated that Washington is taking this leak “very seriously.”

According to press reports and documents obtained by AFP, the US intelligence services have doubts about the Ukrainian counterattack, from which there may be only “minor territorial gains” against Russian forces.

These classified documents are among those leaked online, as revealed last Thursday by the newspaper New York Timeswith the Pentagon citing a “very serious risk” to US national security.

“I was first made aware of the unauthorized disclosure of these classified and sensitive documents on the morning of April 6,” Austin said from Washington during a joint news conference with the Philippine defense and foreign ministers.

“Since then I have been meeting daily with department officials to review our response and have requested an internal investigation,” he added, recalling that the Department of Justice has also launched a related investigation.

“We take this very seriously and continue to work closely with our allies and partners,” Austin said, adding that the documents were dated February 28 to March 1.

Counterattack

This spring it is widely expected that there will be one Ukrainian counterattack against Russian forces. Ukraine asserts that it has trained units and stockpiled ammunition, trying on the one hand to economize its own forces at the front and at the same time exhaust those of the Russians. It also received tanks and long-range missiles from its Western allies.

However, the secret document cited by Washington Post it says “(Ukrainians’) continuing deficiencies in (army) training and ammunition stocks will likely hamper any progress and exacerbate casualties during the offensive.”

Another document, classified “secret”, which came into his possession AFPrefers to the alarming state of Ukrainian air defenses, which have so far played a critical role in countering Russian strikes.

The document, whose authenticity AFP has not confirmed, says 89% of Ukraine’s medium- and long-range air defenses consist of Soviet SA-10 and SA-11 systems, which may soon run out of ammunition.

Based on current consumption figures for these munitions, the SA-11 systems are likely to run out of ammunition by late March and the SA-10s by early May, the document notes.

Kiev’s ability to maintain its medium-range air defenses to protect its front line “may be reduced to exhausted by May 23,” he concludes.

Egyptian rockets?

Another document states that the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi asked to be produced 40,000 rockets in order to hand them over to Russia, while he called on his officials to keep this program secret “in order to avoid problems with the West”, according to another article in Washington Post.

But the representative of the US National Security Council John Kirby denied the information, clarifying that there is “no indication that Egypt is supplying lethal weapons to Russia.”

“Egypt is and remains an important security partner,” Kirby assured.

In recent days, photos of the documents in question have appeared on Twitterthe Telegramthe Discord and other social networking platforms.

Some may have been circulating online for weeks.

Many of these documents are no longer available on the websites where they first appeared, and US authorities are trying to delete them all.

Moscow’s reaction

Moscow assessed today that the leak of classified US documents on the conflict in Ukraine may in fact be “deliberate” and “fake” and aimed to deceive Russia.

At this stage “we have no opinion (…) It may be ‘fake’, a deliberate toxic action”, commented Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

“Given that the US is an integral part of the conflict (in Ukraine) and that it is actually waging a hybrid war against us, such methods are possible with the aim of deceiving the enemy, namely the Russian Federation,” he added.