According to the Washington Post, the man shared the secret information with a group on the Discord online platform popular with video gamers. The person was “gun enthusiast” and employed on a military base. The US Department of Defense has not yet confirmed the information.
The group is made up of two dozen men who share a “mutual love of guns, military equipment and God,” according to the newspaper, which bases its report on interviews with two members of the Discord chat group. The person called himself “OG” in the chats and claimed to have brought the documents home from a military base.
In mid-March, OG stopped sharing documents with the group, which formed in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. “OG” has a dark opinion of the US government. He is not a whistleblower who wants to uncover abuses. Members interviewed by the newspaper said they knew OG’s real name and where he lived, but declined to say.
Dispute between Wagner boss and minister
Even if the authenticity of the documents is sometimes called into question, the Pentagon believes that there is “a very serious security risk”. The documents are said to contain details about weapon deliveries, battalion strength and other sensitive information. As the “New York Times” reported on Thursday, the documents also highlight quarrels in Moscow. The power struggles in the Russian leadership are said to be more extensive than previously known.
According to the NYT, the domestic intelligence agency FSB accused the military of covering up the extent of casualties on the Russian side, the newspaper said on Thursday. The military continues to shy away from relaying bad news up the chain of command, the document said. The FSB, in turn, is questioning the figures from the Ministry of Defense in discussions with the Russian government.
The new documents also revealed details of a public dispute between the head of the Wagner mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu over ammunition allegedly withheld by the military for the Wagner troops. According to the report, Putin is said to have personally tried to settle the dispute between the two. The meeting is said to have taken place on February 22, according to one of the documents.
“When Putin gets his chemotherapy”
According to the military analyst and commander of the army guard, Markus Reisner, the documents also contain indications of Putin’s “health challenges”. There are “internal quarrels” in the continuation of the Russian army’s offensive.
Chief of Staff Valeri Gerasimov is obviously trying to “sabotage”, Reisner reported on Thursday in the Ö1 morning journal. A good time for this is “when Putin gets his chemotherapy”.
Evidence of the precarious situation of the Ukrainian army
Reisner assumes that the content of the documents is largely correct. This is “a fatal situation for the United States”. But the effects are more far-reaching. Because the documents contained indications that the situation in Ukraine was “very precarious”. The Ukrainian air defense obviously does not have enough missiles for its anti-aircraft systems.
The Russian armed forces would also manage to “interfere” with the use of precision bombs that the USA had supplied – and “obviously” there are also “challenges that can hardly be solved” when dropping them. And under certain circumstances, that can be decisive for the war,” says Reisner.
NBC: Wagner wanted to be active in Haiti
The US broadcaster NBC meanwhile reported on the Wagner Group’s efforts to become active in Haiti, citing the secret documents. At the end of February, representatives of the mercenary group tried to travel discreetly to the island state and offer the government there help in the fight against the increasingly powerful criminal groups in the country.
