Pak Sahafat – Publishing statistics of Russian army casualties in the Ukraine war on social media, based on US military documents, which is much less than the claims of US officials, has angered Washington and accused Moscow of revealing these confidential documents.
According to the Pak Sahafat News Agency, Local time on Friday, US officials alleged that Russia or pro-Kremlin operatives may be behind the leaking of several classified US military documents on social media.
Some news sources, quoting American officials, claimed that the documents appear to have been tampered with and that the casualties of Russian forces have decreased. The officials added that their assessments are informal and separate from investigations into the disclosure of the information.
Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said: “We are aware of reports of this information being released on social media, and the Department of Defense is investigating the issue.”
A document published on social media says that since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war on February 24, 2022, 16,000 to 17,500 Russian troops have been killed.
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The two American officials claimed that according to the American assessment, the actual number of Russian casualties is much higher and that about 200,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and wounded since the beginning of the war.
For the first time, the New York Times announced the investigation of the Pentagon regarding the disclosure of information.
According to this American media, these documents do not specify the exact details of when and how Ukraine attacked Russia, they are from five weeks ago and show the point of view of Americans and Ukrainians about the war until March 1st.
According to the New York Times, these documents, which the newspaper claims were published by social networks supporting the Russian government and close to the Kremlin, provide Russian generals and analysts with many clues about the war, for example, the American Himars missile systems.
This American media evaluated part of the published information as accurate, such as the time of delivery of weapons and the military formation of the Ukrainian forces, but at the same time claimed the possibility of manipulation of other parts of this report by the Russian counterintelligence unit.
This revelation indicates the effort of the United States and other European allies to equip and provoke Ukraine to attack Russian forces.