Ukraine to decide on counter-offensive ‘at last moment,’ says top security official
Oleksiy Danilov (Photo:REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko)
Ukraine will decide when to launch its counter-offensive “at the last moment,” of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said in an interview with Germany’s ARD television channel on April 10.
Commenting on the recent leak of highly classified Pentagon documents, Danilov stressed that the headquarters of the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had already prepared several scenarios for the counter-offensive.
“If someone thinks that we have only one scenario, this is not true,” he said.
“Even three scenarios aren’t enough.”
U.S. television new channel CNN, citing a source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reported on April 10 that Ukraine has already altered some of its military plans because of the leak of U.S. documents.
In response, Danilov emphasized that although Kyiv is in constant contact with allied countries, the number of people who know about its plans is “extremely limited.”
“I don’t think that the source who was in contact with CNN has anything to do with it,” he said.
“The data for conducting certain operations, the number of units, who is involved and in what direction – this information is absolutely classified. If anyone thinks they have it, I can only congratulate them. But I don’t know where he could get it from.”
Danilov said he was “categorically not happy” with the leaked documents, but, according to him, some of the information there is not classified and can be found in open sources.
“As for the rest of the information, if it was indeed classified, U.S. and UK intelligence will know exactly where it came from and why it appeared now,” the official said.
“Intelligence agencies should be more vigilant when it comes to classified documents.”
Ukrainian Defense Intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov said that the documents were forged by Russian special services. He pointed out that the documents contain false data on combat losses for both sides, with some other information gathered from open sources.
Another batch of secret documents that appear to detail U.S. national security secrets on Ukraine, the Middle East and China surfaced online on April 7.
Chris Meagher, assistant to the U.S. secretary of defense for public affairs, said on April 10 that the Pentagon is still working to determine the scale of a leak of classified information that has occurred in recent weeks.
He noted that the documents circulating online pose “a very serious risk to national security and have the potential to spread disinformation.”
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