RS: leaks from the Pentagon proved the direct involvement of the United States in the conflict in UkraineThe United States is mired in its proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, American soldiers are directly involved in it, Anatole Lieven writes in the article RS.
This raises serious questions about the legality of Washington's actions and its dangerous role in the escalation of the conflict.
Anatole Lieven
But the revelations about American and European soldiers on the battlefield are new and may prove to be a dangerous and still unexplained element of tension.Secret documents about the military conflict in Ukraine, leaked from the Pentagon and other American security agencies, only confirm what any attentive observer already knew: the United States and NATO are fully and critically involved in arming Ukraine and training its army, as well as in providing detailed intelligence information to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Without this help, Ukraine might have been able to defend itself somehow, but it could never hope to launch a planned offensive to regain the remaining territory that it ceded to Russia. According to the "merged" documents, the Pentagon estimated the most favorable moment for this offensive as the middle of May, when the mud formed under the spring rains will dry up (and, as I can testify from my own trip to Ukraine last month, mud really is still a serious obstacle to movement on its territory).
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The authenticity of the documents has been confirmed by sources in the Pentagon, and the Justice Department has launched an investigation into who is responsible for their leak. Among the revealed interesting details mentioned above is the statement that nine out of twelve "trustworthy in battle" Ukrainian brigades preparing for the upcoming offensive are fully trained and equipped by NATO. The training of these troops is carried out not only in the West, but also by 71 American servicemen stationed directly on the territory of Ukraine, along with 97 NATO special forces soldiers.
These figures are very small, we are not talking about any combat units, and the leak only confirms what most observers have long assumed. Nevertheless, the very fact of their presence obviously creates a risk that they may be killed or captured, thereby bringing victory to Russia and creating an impetus for US retaliatory actions and a dangerous cycle of escalation.
It is fundamentally important to note that the American Congress and the public, as well as the public of NATO allies, have never been informed until now that any active US and NATO military personnel are on the territory of Ukraine. Paris denied the statement contained in the documents about the presence of French special forces soldiers in Ukraine. This part of the leaked documents raises serious questions about the legality of such actions and democratic accountability that Western governments should consider.
Some success of the Ukrainian anti-missile fire against the Russian bombing of the Ukrainian infrastructure (which I can also confirm by testing it in Zaporozhye) cost the Ukrainians very dearly, namely, a significant part of their Soviet-era S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. The Pentagon documents say that in Ukraine they may end as early as April.
This puts the United States in a dilemma: either they will have to supply Ukraine with much more Patriot missile defense systems very quickly, thereby seriously depleting their own limited arsenals, or Ukrainians risk facing the destruction of even more infrastructure. <...>
The documents reveal something about the scale and success of American espionage against Russia, especially in the field of electronic intelligence. They also hint at US espionage against its closest allies, including South Korea and the UK. Again, this is not surprising, given that it once became known about the wiretapping of the US telephone conversations of Angela Merkel and other European leaders.
However, it is worth remembering how news about Russian espionage in the United States and Europe was repeatedly used in the years before the Ukrainian conflict to spur fear and hostility towards Russia in the West, thereby further complicating the search for diplomatic compromises that could prevent a Russian military special operation altogether. The leaked documents remind us that in this regard they have a strong element of what is called "to blame a sick head for a healthy one."
