U.S. officials speak to Ukrainians after document leaks

WASHINGTON — Senior Biden administration officials sought on Tuesday calm anger in foreign capitals over the leak of classified military and intelligence documents, but had little new information about the source of the breach or its motive.

In their first public comments since the documents appeared online several weeks ago, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they had spoken to their Ukrainian counterparts. Blinken also said he had spoken to unidentified American allies to “reassure them about our own commitment to safeguarding intelligence.”

Austin said he was first briefed Thursday about the existence of the documents, which assessed the state of the war in Ukraine and the strength and capabilities of Ukrainian and Russian forces, and also included CIA intelligence reports on events in foreign capitals from Cairo to Ankara, Turkey, to Seoul, South Korea. Blinken and Austin spoke at a joint news conference at the State Department after meeting with visiting counterparts from the Philippines.

“Well, they were somewhere in the web,” Austin said of the leaked documents. “And where exactly and who had access at that point, we don’t know. We simply don’t know at this point.”

U.S. officials are investigating how the documents, numbering at least in the dozens, wound up online, whether more may yet surface — and whether a security threat exists within the Biden administration’s national security apparatus.

While acknowledging the seriousness of the leak, some officials have suggested that some of the documents may have been altered since their release online, and several foreign governments have challenged assertions the files contained about their private conversations.

Although several weeks out of date, battlefield assessments in the documents — including projections estimating when Ukraine’s air defenses might become depleted — have also raised concerns about whether the leaked information could give Russia an advantage as it prepares for a widely expected Ukrainian spring offensive.

Asked whether the disclosure of information about the state of Ukrainian forces might affect Kyiv’s plans for such an offensive, Austin said Ukraine’s military “would not be driven by a specific plan” and expressed confidence in its ability.

Blinken added that, although the United States provides weaponry and military advice, “Ukraine makes the decisions about how it actually prosecutes the effort to regain its territory.”

Blinken said he had spoken earlier in the day to Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, and underscored America’s support for his country against Russia’s invasion.

Austin said that he, too, had spoken Tuesday with his counterpart, Oleksii Reznikov, the defense minister, and that Ukraine’s forces had “much of the capability that they need to continue to be successful.”

Blinken and Austin projected calm even as some foreign governments were roiling over the breach, prompting criticism of the United States for conducting surveillance of its allies and claims that the documents could not be trusted.

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