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Pentagon probes alleged classified documents on Ukraine circulating on social media. Catch up on the latest
From CNN staff
The Pentagon is investigating what appear to be screenshots of classified US and NATO military information about Ukraine circulating on social media, a Pentagon official told CNN. CNN reviewed some of the images on Twitter and Telegram but is unable to verify if they are authentic or have been doctored.
The emergence of the documents — whether genuine or not — has heightened focus on when the planned Ukrainian counteroffensive will begin and what, if anything, either side knows about the other’s preparations for it.
Here’s the latest headlines out of Russia’s war on Ukraine today:
- Documents posted to Discord: US officials say the documents are real slides, part of a larger daily intelligence deck produced by the Pentagon about the war, but it appears the documents have been edited in some places. Images of some of the documents — which include estimates of Russian casualties and a list of Western weapons systems available to Ukraine — were posted to the social media platform Discord in early March, according to screenshots of the posts reviewed by CNN.
- American reporter formally charged: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been formally charged with espionage, Russian state media reported on Friday. The FSB, Russia’s main security service, has claimed Gershkovich had been trying to obtain state secrets. The newspaper has rejected those allegations and has called for the journalist’s “immediate release.” Meanwhile, news emerged Friday of Russian authorities arresting another foreign media figure. The Chinese LGBTQ blogger Haoyang Xu was arrested for allegedly violating a Russian law that bans so-called same-sex propaganda on Wednesday.
- Children return home: Thirty-one children returned to Ukraine after they were illegally taken to Russia, according to Save Ukraine, a Kyiv-based humanitarian organization. The children crossed the border back into Ukraine by foot and were accompanied by family members. Ukraine has said there are thousands of cases of forced deportation of children under investigation. Russia has denied it is doing anything illegal.
- Bakhmut: Battles continue between Ukrainian and Russian forces for Bakhmut, as Russian forces try to take “full control” of the key eastern city, the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said Friday. Ukrainian defense forces repelled about 14 Russian attacks over the last 24 hours in the Bakhmut area, the General Staff said.
- Life imprisonment for treason: Russian legislators in the country’s lower parliament are set to consider imposing life sentences for those who commit acts of high treason.
Zelensky shares Iftar with Muslim soldiers and leaders
From CNN’s Mariya Knight
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared Iftar with Ukrainian Muslim soldiers observing Ramadan, along with representatives of the Muslim clergy and leaders of the Mejlis — the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars.
The Ukrainian President said that as of 2023, the Iftar dinner will be held annually and called it “a new tradition of respect.” Iftar is the breaking of the fast after sundown.
Zelensky said the month of Ramadan “is respected everywhere in Ukraine, and even at the frontline, even in combat conditions.”
“Russia’s attempt to enslave Ukraine and other people of Europe began precisely from the occupation of the Ukrainian Crimea, precisely from repressions in the Crimea against Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar freedom, against Crimean Muslims,” Zelensky said in his address to the Iftar participants earlier Friday.
“The liberation of Crimea has no alternatives not only for Ukraine, but also for the whole world,” he said.
Apparent classified Pentagon documents on Ukraine were also posted to video game chatroom
From CNN’s Sean Lyngaas
The fallout from the leak of what appear to be classified US military documents on the war in Ukraine took a bizarre turn Friday, as evidence surfaced that versions of the documents had been posted over a month ago to a video game-focused chatroom online.
Images of some of the documents — which include estimates of Russian casualties and a list of Western weapons systems available to Ukraine — were posted to the chat app Discord in early March, according to screenshots of the posts reviewed by CNN.
“This s*** was sitting in a Minecraft Discord server for a month and no one noticed,” Aric Toler, a researcher at investigative outlet Bellingcat, told CNN.
(Minecraft is among the world’s most popular video games, and Discord servers are dedicated spaces to discuss a common topic.)
It wasn’t until this week that the documents started to gain more attention. A user posted a portion of the documents to 4chan, a largely unmoderated online forum, and then a Russian speaker posted an altered version of one of the documents on the Telegram messaging platform, Toler said.
US officials believe someone altered that document to make the estimated number of Ukrainians killed in the war to be far higher than it actually is.
The US is investigating: The Pentagon is aware of the online posts and looking into the matter, it said Thursday.
Speculation and paranoia were rife Friday on Discord, with some users wondering if they could get in trouble for re-posting the documents, now that the US government is investigating. A user who posted photos of the documents on March 1 appeared to have deleted his accounts on Twitter and Discord.
An expert interviewed by CNN questions whether this was the work of state actors:
“The fact that unedited and edited — doctored — versions of some files are available online makes me skeptical that this is a professional Russian intelligence operation,” Thomas Rid, who studies state-backed information operations, told CNN.
Historically, if an intelligence agency has access to classified material from an adversary and decides to falsify some of the material, they don’t make both versions of those documents public, said Rid, who is a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
“That only makes it easier to detect the facts, and thus defeats the purpose,” Rid said.
Russian parliament to consider life imprisonment for acts of high treason
From CNN’s Uliana Pavlova
Russian legislators in its State Duma, or lower parliament, are set to consider imposing a life sentence for those who commit acts of treason, a Moscow official said on Telegram Friday.
“We propose to establish life imprisonment for high treason,” said Vasily Piskarev, head of the Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption.
Piskarev also announced amendments that would result in harsher sentences for those convicted of terrorism and sabotage, including raising the maximum sentence for “carrying out a terrorist act” from 15 to 20 years.
Piskarev said those found guilty of sabotage could face up to 20 years in prison, while those convicted of “international terrorism” could also face a life sentence, up from 10 years.
“I hope that the changes we proposed will be considered by the State Duma in the near future and supported by the deputies,” Piskarev said. “They [the amendments] have been prepared for the bill already adopted in the first reading, which will allow them to be considered promptly.”
US making a global push to crack down on Russia’s efforts to evade sanctions, Treasury officials say
From CNN’s Sam Fossum
The United States and its allies are working constantly to keep Russia from getting around Western sanctions and obtaining the technology and financing it needs to fund its war machine in Ukraine, according to senior US Treasury officials.
The sanctions in question: Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the US has imposed thousands of sanctions. They have, among other things:
- Targeted Russian politicians, oligarchs and companies;
- sought to isolate the Russian central bank from the global economy;
- targeted a key Russian mercenary group, Wagner;
- undermined Moscow’s defense-industrial base, and;
- imposed a price cap on Russian oil and petroleum products.
Moscow’s moves: Despite the sanctions’ impact, some observers note concerns over Russia’s ability to re-orient trade routes and acquire what it needs through neighboring countries or more permissive jurisdictions, such as the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
The Treasury says Russia has even tasked its intelligence services with finding sanction workarounds — a sign, in the US view, that they are keeping the pressure on.
The US response: The US has made major efforts to share information with allied countries and businesses on how the Kremlin is trying to evade the sanctions regime, according to senior US officials.
In recent months, the US has seen some encouraging results from its public and private efforts. The Turkish government told the US last month it has taken further action to block shipments of sanctioned goods directly to Russia, according to a source familiar with the discussion.
More diplomacy to come: Leaders of the global financial system will attend the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, D.C. next week, providing the Treasury another opportunity to ramp up pressure on countries key to Russia’s attempts to evade sanctions.
Over the next month, senior officials will also fan out across the world to strategize with other governments. Two of the Treasury’s top sanctions officials – Brian Nelson and Liz Rosenberg – will play a part in this effort.
Nelson will meet with Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Germany to compare notes with counterparts. Rosenberg will travel to Kazakhstan in Central Asia, a region with a long history of ties to Russia, where officials worry Russia has been sourcing materials.
American reporter Evan Gershkovich formally charged with espionage, according to Russian state media
From CNN’s Anna Chernova and Radina Gigova
Russian investigators have formally charged Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich with espionage, Russian state media reported Friday.
Gershkovich denied the accusations, according to the state news agency TASS. The newspaper has “vehemently” denied the Kremlin’s claims and the chief executive of Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, said it is working “around the clock” to secure his release.
“The FSB investigation charged Gershkovich with espionage in the interests of his country. He categorically denied all accusations and stated that he was engaged in journalistic activities in Russia,” an agency representative said, according to TASS.
The representative declined to comment further, as the journalist’s case was marked “top secret,” the state news agency said.
Dow Jones later reiterated its view that Gershkovich’s charges are “false and unjustified,” according to a statement, The company added: “We continue to demand Evan’s immediate release.”
The US State Department does not have a comment on Gershkovich’s being formally charged, a spokesperson told CNN Friday, and the US Embassy in Moscow still has not been granted consular access to the detained journalist.
What the US has said about the case: US President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to officially declare Gershkovich wrongfully detained in Russia, two US officials told CNN earlier this week, a move that will trigger new government resources to work toward his release.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke last weekend with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and called for Gershkovich’s immediate release. The White House has said there is “no reason to believe” Russia’s justification for the detention.
More background: Gershkovich is the first US journalist detained on spying accusations by Moscow since the Cold War. His detention came a week after US authorities announced charges against a Russian national, Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, accusing him of being a Russian spy.
The episode signals a significant ratcheting of both Moscow’s tensions with the United States and its campaign against foreign news media, which has been under intense pressure since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.
CNN’s Kylie Atwood, Sarah Dean, Julia Horowitz, Eliza Mackintosh and Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.
31 Ukrainian children return home after being taken illegally to Russia, according to humanitarian group
From CNN’s Andrew Carey, Svitlana Vlasova and Mariya Knight
Thirty-one children are back in Ukraine after they were taken illegally to Russia, according to Save Ukraine, a Kyiv-based humanitarian organization.
The children — pulling suitcases and bags of belongings, with some clutching stuffed animals — accompanied by family members, were embraced by volunteers after crossing the border into Ukraine by foot. They then boarded a coach to continue their journey.
“Children abducted by Russians from Kherson and Kharkiv regions have finally crossed the border with their families and are now safe,” Mykola Kuleba, the founder of Save Ukraine, said in a Telegram post.
“Both the children and their parents have psychological and physical recovery ahead of them. And we will continue to take care of them until the families are back in their homes,” Kuleba said.
Save Ukraine’s Olha Yerokhina told CNN this was the fifth rescue mission arranged by the organization.
A group of 13 mothers had left Ukraine a little over a week ago, many of them granted power of attorney which allowed them to collect other parents’ children in addition to their own, she said.
The party crossed into Poland before traveling through Belarus, Russia and finally entering Russian-occupied Crimea, where they were reunited with 24 of the children. The other seven children were collected in Voronezh, Rostov and Belgorod, all inside Russia, she said.
Yerokhina said facilitating the rescue missions was difficult because Save Ukraine has no official contact with anybody in Russia. Instead, the organization received crucial help from volunteers in different locations.
Remember: Allegations of widespread forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia form the basis of war crimes charges brought against Russian President Vladimir Putin and a senior official, Maria Lvova-Belova, by the International Criminal Court last month.
Ukraine has said there are more than 16,000 such cases under investigation.
Russia has denied it is doing anything illegal, saying it is bringing Ukrainian children to safety.
US Treasury: Despite closer ties, China has not provided major assistance to Russia’s war effort
From CNN’s Sam Fossum
While China and Russia have strengthened ties since the Kremlin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, the US has not yet seen evidence of Beijing providing systemic, material support for Moscow’s war effort, according to senior US Treasury officials.
The US assessment comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government look for avenues to evade Western sanctions and backfill its military.
One senior Treasury official said China is, as of now, unwilling to provide material support to Russia at a significant scale, pointing instead to Russian efforts to source material from North Korea and Iran.
A Western deterrence campaign: Senior US officials credit the efforts of their sanctions coalition — including public US comments and direct messages delivered by European allies — for prompting China to hold off from providing more substantive support to Russia.
The Biden administration has worked to plug the gaps of the sanctions regime, broadening intelligence sharing with allies and targeting areas where Russia hopes to sidestep sanctions and export controls.
The US and its allies have also taken more direct action, sanctioning a Chinese satellite company providing intelligence to Russian forces in January and putting some Chinese companies on the US export control list.