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Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder speaks during a media briefing on Thursday. (Alex Brandon/AP)1 hr 9 min ago
Leaked classified Pentagon documents appear to show extent of US spying on Russia and Ukraine
From CNN's Zachary Cohen, Natasha Bertrand and Kylie Atwood
Ukrainian servicemen fire at Russian positions in the Donbas region last month. (Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)
Leaked
Pentagon documents contain a wide range of highly classified information – providing a rare window into how the United States spies on allies and adversaries alike.
CNN has reviewed 53 leaked documents, all of which appear to have been produced between mid-February and early March.
Some of the documents, which US officials say are authentic, expose the extent of US eavesdropping on key allies, including South Korea, Israel and Ukraine.
On Russia and Wagner Group: Others reveal the degree to which the US has penetrated the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group, largely through intercepted communications and human sources, which could now be cut off or put in danger.
On Ukraine's military and Zelensky: Still, others divulge key weaknesses in Ukrainian weaponry, air defense, and battalion sizes and readiness at a critical point in the war, as Ukrainian forces gear up to launch a counteroffensive against the Russians – and just as the US and Ukraine have begun to develop a more mutually trusting relationship over intelligence-sharing.
One document reveals that the US has been spying on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That is unsurprising, said a source close to Zelensky, but Ukrainian officials are deeply frustrated about the leak.
The US intelligence report, which is sourced to signals intelligence, says that Zelensky in late February “suggested striking Russian deployment locations in Russia’s Rostov Oblast” using unmanned aerial vehicles since Ukraine does not have long-range weapons capable of reaching that far.
Signals 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, radars, and weapons systems.”
On South Korean officials: Yet another document describes, in remarkable detail, a conversation between two senior South Korean national security officials about concerns by the country’s National Security Council over a US request for ammunition.
The officials worried that supplying the ammunition, which the US would then send to Ukraine, would violate South Korea’s policy of not supplying lethal aid to countries at war. According to the document, one of the officials then suggested a way of getting around the policy without actually changing it – by selling the ammunition to Poland.
What causes Putinski cultural warriors more anxiety here on Quora, the qualitative or quantitative magnitude of the world’s reaction to their primate behavior?
Putinski cultural warriors on Quora are paid a wage. They are just doing their jobs.
Most of them don’t really care what is the world’s reaction; they just post. Doesn’t bother them, what people think; they aren’t saying what they think; they write according to the instruction manual (“metodichka”).
A few years ago, the daily task of a commentator on salary was 120 comments per shift.
The task for writers (authors answering questions) is in words – they need to write, let’s say, 5,000 words per day.
The set up also includes upvotes and downvotes, mass-reporting of answers that contain opposing opinions, etc.
It’s all structured.
Russian troll factories really exist.
Until February 2022, when Russia attacked Ukraine, topics of Russia and Russian politics were mostly dominated by answers of “Putinski warriors” (aka “Kremlebots”).
After Russia invaded Ukraine, more Quora writers became interested in these topics, as well as topics of Russia-Ukraine relations. It became much harder for “Putinski warriors” to dominate answers, and it doesn’t look like they got more staff to do the job.
There are, of course, some people who are misled by Russian propaganda, but they nearly all stopped defending Putin by now, after so many abhorrent crimes against humanity committed by Russia.
So, the methods used by “Putinski warriors” are what they had been taught to use, and they don’t have personal grievances about the world’s reaction. It’s just a job.