In recent weeks, appearing to originate from a “Discord Server” (Discord being a popular Social Media) concerning the popular computer game “Minecraft,” documents classified by the Pentagon and the United States government concerning the 2022 – 2023 Russo-Ukrainian war, providing insight into the war effort on the side of Ukraine and her NATO benefactors, whether for better or for worse.

According to an anonymous user who was interviewed by the Associated Press (AP), within the aforementioned Discord Server, the leaker shared the documents in a channel that was meant for the expression of various thoughts or the sharing of random images. According to the user, the poser would mix personal thoughts and feelings with the illegally obtained documents. Then, as of a few months ago, the user began to simply just post as many of the documents as he could. Another user, only identified as “Luca,” shared the documents in a different discord chat. From there, it appears that the documents were shared until Social Media took notice.

Whilst the office of the pentagon for obvious reasons has not disclosed any information about either the investigation or the nature of the documents, the documents themselves have been preserved in the internet as they largely remain in circulation. One of the documents, a casualty report, paints a really rather grim picture of the ongoing war in Ukraine. The document states that Ukraine has lost 71,000 men, whilst Russia has only lost 16,000 to 17,500, a far cry from the official U.S statement that Russia has lost 100,00 men total in the war. 

As a whole, the documents paint a grim picture of the war in Ukraine, and reveal the current pessimistic view that the United States holds concerning the war. The documents themselves go into detail the military shortcomings of Ukraine as the nation prepares for a counteroffensive against the Russian Federation. One such document warns that Ukraine’s medium-range air defenses to protect frontline troops will be completely reduced by May 2023, suggesting that Russia could soon gain air superiority against Ukraine and repel any attempted counteroffensive.

The documents are not wholly against Ukraine though, as one section underscores the lingering problems with Russia’s military, thus predicting a stalemate in Ukraine’s upcoming counteroffensive. It also states that due to Russia’s own individual issues that it will fail to fully secure the Donbass region. As a whole, the documents do highlight possible scenarios, “gaming that out” in their reports, including one where Ukraine strikes the Kremlin, thus resulting in Russian President Vladimir Putin resorting to full scale nuclear warfare.

The Department of Justice and the Pentagon have called this leak a major threat to national security and the integrity of the war effort in the Ukraine, and indeed, the department of justice has launched a full scale investigation into how these documents were acquired, attempting to track down the leaker citing the security risk. As of now, all has remained classified, and it remains to be seen what comes from this.