The crisis of the Pentagon documents leaks continues to arouse wide international resonances over the past hours, at a time when it claimed the existence of an “actual role” for NATO in the Ukraine war, which may threaten to escalate the conflict if confirmed.
The leaked documents include a number of files, including those related to the war in Ukraine and analyzes from US intelligence agencies on Russia and several other countries, while some of them revealed NATO’s efforts to train and arm Ukrainian forces before the spring offensive..
According to Western reports, a trove of leaked documents detailing plans for a Ukrainian military offensive in the spring circulating online imply the presence of French soldiers on the battlefield..
He did not stop there, as one of the documents, which was classified as “top secret”, revealed that a small contingent of no more than 100 members of the special operations of NATO members France, America, Britain and Latvia, was already active in Ukraine on the ground..
The documents containing charts and details about expected weapons deliveries, brigades’ strength and “highly sensitive” information were also posted on social media..
Quick French response
- Immediately, the French Ministry of Defense denied the presence of French soldiers in Ukraine, according to documents attributed to the Pentagon and leaked to Russian networks in the past few days..
- French Defense Minister Sebastien Licorne told Le Monde newspaper that “there are no French forces involved in operations in Ukraine.”“.
- “Licorno” confirmed that “the aforementioned documents did not originate from the French army, and therefore he does not comment on those documents whose source has not been confirmed.”“.
- The Ukrainian authorities stressed that the leaked files contained “fake information”.“.
- According to military analysts, certain parts of the documents have been altered in order to exaggerate US estimates of the Ukraine war and underestimate the death toll of Russian troops..
- This coincided with French President Emmanuel Macron’s assertion that Europe should not become subordinate to the United States, during his trip back from China on a 3-day visit..
Hands-on support
Nearly 40,000 NATO soldiers are deployed in the military alliance’s member states in the war zone, such as the Baltic states and Poland, in addition to another 300,000 soldiers on high alert..
Extensive training of Ukrainian forces is also being conducted by NATO members outside the country, but no NATO member country has officially announced that it has contributed military personnel to fight in Ukraine..
European security expert at the Royal Institute of Defense Services specializing in defense and security research, Edward Arnold, said that there is no conclusive evidence of the participation of NATO forces in Ukraine..
Arnold said it was never the case for NATO commanders to direct Ukrainian units on the battlefield, but he did not rule it out as NATO seeks to mitigate the risk of escalation..
What did the Pentagon Papers include?