Pentagon Russo-Ukrainian War File Leaks

By Duncan Kilbride ’24 Panel Staff

On April 13, Massachusetts Air National Guardsmen Jack Teixeira was arrested in association to the leak of classified Pentagon documents on the popular communication platform, Discord. Teixeira was alleged to have taken photographs of sensitive information and posted them on a Discord server, from which the documents were disseminated across the internet. The leaked files appear to be part of a briefing for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including information about the Russo-Ukraine conflict, China, Turkey, Israel, and South Korea. The documents are also sourced from various American intelligence agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National Recon- naissance Office, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s own intelligence wing, the J2. Most of the documents were reports on the war between Russia and Ukraine. One of the files indicates that certain Ukrainian air defense systems could run out of ammo by May 2, 2023, while another leaked document discovered by the Wall Street Journal claims these weapons could last till April 13. Either way, without these critical air defense weapons, Ukraine will be left even more vulnerable to Russian air attacks. Furthermore, one document analyzed by CBS aimed to estimate air and ground capacities from Russian and Ukrainian forces. It put Russian ground forces at 63% capability, but air forces at 92% capability, while Ukraine was 83% and 63% respectively. Another document reported on overall casualties on both sides with an estimated 189,500223,000 soldiers on the Russian side and

124,500-131,000 on the Ukrainian side.

Other leaked documents also contain information on the United States’ top geopolitical rival, which described China’s development of an “intermediate range

“ballistic missile-class multirole hypersonic glide vehicle.” Another file demonstrates American interest in China’s growing global presence with reports on Chinese influence in Jordan and Nicaragua.