A leak of U.S. military files has revealed close-held assessments of the Ukraine war: that the fighting has gutted Russian commando units and that China had agreed to provide Moscow with weapons.
The trove of classified files, first posted on the chat app Discord and obtained by The Washington Post, has offered a window into U.S. intelligence on Russia and Ukraine’s militaries, and on other countries. The U.S. has assessed that Moscow’s commanders have over-relied on the clandestine spetsnaz forces that were deployed alongside the infantry at the front-lines that, like the Ukrainians, have suffered big losses during the war, The Post reported.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Analysis from our correspondents
“A total military victory for Ukraine seemed impossible; the military-industrial base in Western countries required to sustain the flow of foreign munitions and arms to the front was under severe strain; and, at some point, the support of Western publics, especially Americans, would wane,” he writes.
Meaghan Tobin in Taipei, Taiwan, and Karen DeYoung and Missy Ryan in Washington contributed to this report.
