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A2 u.s. news
Tuesday 11 april 2023

Leaked documents a 'very serious' risk to security: Pentagon

By TARA COPP and waves across the U.S. gov- volving other nations were
LOLITA C. BALDOR ernment, the White House leaked.
Associated Press said there are concerns In the days since, Austin has
WASHINGTON (AP) — The there could be additional reached out to allies, held
online leaks of scores of leaks. daily meetings to assess
highly classified documents Chris Meagher, assistant to the damage and set up
about the Ukraine war the secretary of defense for a group not only to assess
present a "very serious" risk public affairs, told report- the scope of the informa-
to national security, and ers that Defense Secretary tion lost but review who has
senior leaders are quickly Lloyd Austin first became access to those briefings.
taking steps to mitigate the aware on Thursday that a The department is looking
damage, a top Pentagon number of classified brief- closely at "how this type of
spokesman said Monday. ing slides detailing the U.S. information is distributed
And as the public airing military efforts in the Ukraine and to whom," Meagher
of the data sends shock- war and intelligence in- said.
A local resident runs past the damaged houses in Bakhmut, the
site of heavy battles with Russian troops in the Donetsk region,
Ukraine, Sunday, Apr. 9, 2023.
Associated Press
A defense official who that are significantly lower
spoke to The Associated than numbers publicly stat-
Press on the condition of ed by U.S. officials. Under
anonymity to discuss sensi- a section titled "Total As-
tive matters said the Pen- sessed Losses," one docu-
tagon has now taken steps ment lists 16,000-17,500 Rus-
to reduce the number of sian casualties and up to
people who have access 71,000 Ukrainian casualties.
to those briefings. The offi- Gen. Mark Milley, chair-
cial said the Pentagon reg- man of the Joint Chiefs of
ularly reviews access lists to Staff, said publicly last No-
weigh who has a need to vember that Russia has lost
know and have access to "well over" 100,000 soldiers,
classified material. and Ukraine had lost about
At the White House, Nation- that many also. And those
al Security Council spokes- estimates have continued
man John Kirby was asked to climb in recent months,
if the U.S. was bracing for although officials have
more online releases. stopped providing more
"The truth and the honest exact numbers.
answer to your question is: At the State Department,
We don't know," he said. spokesman Vedant Patel
"And is that a matter of told reporters Monday that
concern to us? You're darn U.S. officials "are engaging
right it is." with allies and partners at
Kirby said at this point, "we high levels over this, includ-
don't know who's behind ing to reassure them of our
this, we don't know what commitment to safeguard-
the motive is." ing intelligence and the fi-
And he said as U.S. authori- delity of securing our part-
ties go through the docu- nerships."
ments that were posted The U.S. officials declined
online, they are still trying to to provide any specifics,
determine their validity, but including about the ex-
have found that at least panse of the release, how
some of the papers "have it happened and to which
been doctored." country leaders the U.S.
He and others would not go has spoken. Patel added
into detail, but at least one that there is "no question"
of the documents shows the documents' release
estimates of Russian troops present a risk to national
deaths in the Ukraine war security.q