The highly classified stolen Military documents shared to social media present a dismal US opinion regarding the state of the conflict in Ukraine, citing shortcomings in Ukraine’s arsenal and air defences and projecting a stalemate in the battle for months to come.

The documents, which appear to date from February and March, outline many of Ukraine’s apparent military shortcomings as Kyiv prepares for a spring counteroffensive against Russia.

Some of the confidential documents warn that Ukraine’s medium-range air defences to defend front-line soldiers will be “completely depleted by May 23,” implying Russia might soon gain aerial superiority and Ukraine could lose the ability to deploy ground forces in a counteroffensive.

The documents also emphasise continuing concerns with Russia’s own military offensive, predicting that the result will be a stalemate between the two sides for the foreseeable future.

“Russia’s gruelling campaign of attrition in the Donbas region is likely heading towards a stalemate, defeating Mosco’s ambition to conquer the entire territory in 2023,” writes one of the classified documents.

Sources familiar with the issue told CNN the documents appear to be part of a daily intelligence briefing deck created for the Pentagon’s highest commanders, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.

The release of the documents, many of which are marked top secret, marks a major national security breach, and the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into who may have leaked them while the Pentagon is reviewing how the leak effects US national security. In addition to the evaluation of the Ukraine war, the records feature intelligence obtained on allies and opponents alike.

Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, a CNN national security and military expert, said that the obstacles Ukraine confronts with its planned counteroffensive have been known for weeks, including the need to integrate new weapons and additional troops and guarantee that a robust supply chain is in place. He did not expect that the document leak will affect Kyiv’s preparations.

“I haven’t seen anything in the documents I’ve read that would compel me as a commander to rethink my plans,” Hertling said. “It’s given some information to the Russians in terms of unit positions and munitions and equipment capabilities, but I would hazard to assume the Russians already knew all that anyway.”

US officials have warned openly the battle might stretch on

In many aspects, the assessment of the Ukraine war is comparable to what US officials have said publicly, as top Biden administration officials have predicted the battle is expected to continue on for months, if not longer.

But the briefing slides outlining the obstacles Ukraine faces despite its victories more than a year into the war lay out starkly the thorough and uncompromising assessment of the battle.

An official from a nation included in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement with the US previously told CNN that it was disconcerting to see the country’s performance in the Ukrainian War being hampered by the information that had been released.

Improvements for Ukraine will be challenging to achieve, but the person said it was counterproductive to make public the private US assessment that indicated a lengthy impasse was inevitable.

Officials from the US and Ukraine have minimised the importance of the confidential materials in public.

Following the Pentagon document leaks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly promised Ukraine of the United States’ “ironclad” support for the nation. This is according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Blinken “reaffirmed the ironclad U.S. support and forcefully rejected any attempts to put doubt on Ukraine’s capacity to win on the battlefield during a call on Tuesday,” Kuleba stated on Twitter on that day.

According to Kuleba, “The U.S. remains Ukraine’s reliable partner, intent on furthering our victory and establishing a just peace.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated at a press conference on Tuesday that the department will “turn over every stone until we locate the source” of the stolen intelligence documents.

53 leaked documents, all of which appear to have been created between mid-February and early March, have been examined by CNN.

Prior to being distributed on pro-Russian Telegram groups, at least one of the documents—which showed the numbers of Russian and Ukrainian casualties and more than half the number of Russian deaths—appears to have been altered.

US officials have admitted that the majority of the documents appear to be authentic, nevertheless. According to a source close to Zelensky, Ukraine has already changed parts of its military plans as a result of the leak.

This documentation is static. They serve as a snapshot of a certain period. We have plenty of time for Ukraine to change how it is handling this situation, and both the United States and Ukraine have the capacity to do so, House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday.

There have also been more documents revealed. The Washington Post published an article on Monday about another stolen document that contained a sombre assessment from February that suggested Ukraine might fall “far short” of its objectives in its anticipated spring counteroffensive due to problems with troops, ammunition, and equipment.

According to a paper from February, the US believes that Ukraine can produce 12 military brigades for the spring counteroffensive, with three of those brigades being trained in Ukraine and the other nine receiving training and equipment from the US. The memo stated that six of the brigades would be prepared by the end of March and the remaining six by the end of April.

A detailed map of the battlefield, figures on the number of soldiers killed and wounded, and estimates of the number of tanks, fighter planes, and other weapons fielded and destroyed are all included in the documents that have been leaked.

A timeline on one slide shows when the ground in Ukraine will be frozen, when it will be muddy, and when it will be safe to cross.

There are evaluations of Ukrainian forces in and around Bakhmut, the scene of some of the most ferocious combat between the two sides this year. The intelligence assessment includes information on communities where the Ukrainian military withdrew and which positions it was still in possession of in one update from February.

The post Leaked Pentagon docs imply US is pessimistic Ukraine can easily stop war against Russia appeared first on .