The leaked Pentagon documents contain a wide range of highly classified information, providing a rare glimpse into how the United States is spying on allies and adversaries alike.
CNN reviewed 53 leaked documents, all of which appear to have been produced between mid-February and early March.
Some of the documents that US officials say are genuine expose the extent of US eavesdropping on key allies, including South Korea, Israel and Ukra*ne.
About Russ*a and the Wagner Group: Others reveal the extent to which the US has infiltrated the Russ*an Ministry of Defense and the Russ*an mercenary organization the Wagner Group, mostly through intercepted communications and live sources that can now be cut off or endangered.
About the Ukra*nian military and Zelensky: However, others reveal key weaknesses in Ukra*nian weap*nry, air defense, battalion size and readiness at a critical juncture in the war, when Ukra*nian forces are preparing for a counteroffensive against the Russ*ans—and just as the US and Ukra*ne have begun to develop a more mutually trusting relationship rather than intelligence sharing.
One document shows that the US was spying on Ukra*nian President Volodymyr Zelensky. This is not surprising, a source close to Zelenskiy said, but Ukra*nian officials are deeply disappointed by the leak.
A U.S. intelligence report, sourced from electronic intelligence, says that Zelensky at the end of February “proposed to strike Russ*an troops in the Rostov region of Russ*a” using unmanned aerial vehicles, since Ukra*ne does not have long-range weap*ns capable of reaching such a distance.
Signal intelligence includes intercepted communications and is broadly defined by the National Security Agency as “intelligence derived from electronic signals and systems used by foreign targets, such as communications systems, radar, and weap*ns systems.”
About South Korean officials: Another document describes in remarkable detail a conversation between two senior South Korean national security officials about the country’s National Security Council’s concerns about a US munitions request.
Officials feared that the munitions shipments the US would then send to Ukra*ne would violate South Korea’s policy of not delivering lethal aid to warring nations. According to the document, one of the officials then suggested a way to circumvent the policy without actually changing it – by selling ammunition to Poland.