Skip to main content

Kiev's military 'requests' for US aid leaked by Ukrainian hacker group

Ukrainian soldiers (Reuters / Vasily Fedosenko)
Ukrainian soldiers (Reuters / Vasily Fedosenko)
Ukraine's anti-government CyberBerkut hacker group published documents allegedly showing Kiev's detailed demands for money from the US military, and Washington agreeing to giving them support.

According to hacktivists, who made the documents public on Tuesday, the Ukrainian military have recently been asking for and being promised financial support from the United States, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The hackers claimed they obtained the confidential State Department documents by breaking into a mobile device belonging to one of the American delegation's members, who had traveled to Ukraine together with US Vice President Joe Biden. The US politician visited Kiev on November 20-21.

"After examination of just some of the data, there is an impression that the Ukrainian army is a branch of the US Armed Forces," CyberBerkut said, publishing copies of allegedly official documents, some carrying signatures of top US officials, including what is claimed to be the signatures of president Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry.

In an alleged White House document, dated September 24, in a memorandum for the secretary of state, Obama delegates Kerry "to direct the drawdown of up to $5 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense and military education and training to provide immediate military assistance for the Government of Ukraine, to aid their efforts to respond to the current crisis."

The US president also allegedly authorized the drawdown of up to $20 million in nonlethal commodities and services, with John Kerry later determining such assistance as being "important to the national interests of the United States."

Other documents published by the hackers suggest that Washington is ready to provide Kiev with arms and ammunition.

A leaked supplement to an unspecified document in Ukrainian, catalogues a list of weapons and military hardware, allegedly requested by Kiev, including 2,000 units of assault rifles, 720 hand grenade launchers, nearly 200 mortars and 420 anti-tank missiles.

News about Washington being ready to send non-lethal aid to Ukraine first came in April, just a day after the then interim Kiev government launched an operation against armed protesters. Before leaving office this fall, former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced a "comprehensive and tailored package of measures," including the donation of 15 million euros "through NATO." Last week, Moscow warned Washington that a potential policy shift from supplying Kiev with “non-lethal aid” to “defensive lethal weapons” would be a direct violation of all international agreements.
Screenshot from cyber-berkut.net
Screenshot from cyber-berkut.net
Screenshot from cyber-berkut.net
Screenshot from cyber-berkut.net
Screenshot from cyber-berkut.net
Screenshot from cyber

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why States Still Use Barrel Bombs

Smoke ascends after a Syrian military helicopter allegedly dropped a barrel bomb over the city of Daraya on Jan. 31.(FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Barrel bombs are not especially effective weapons. They are often poorly constructed; they fail to detonate more often than other devices constructed for a similar purpose; and their lack of precision means they can have a disproportionate effect on civilian populations. However, combatants continue to use barrel bombs in conflicts, including in recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and they are ideally suited to the requirements of resource-poor states. Analysis Barrel bombs are improvised devices that contain explosive filling and shrapnel packed into a container, often in a cylindrical shape such as a barrel. The devices continue to be dropped on towns all over Syria . Indeed, there have been several documented cases of their use in Iraq over the past months, and residents of the city of Mosul, which was re...
Post a Comment
Read more

Russia Looks East for New Oil Markets

Click to Enlarge In the final years of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began orienting his foreign policy toward Asia in response to a rising Japan. Putin has also piloted a much-touted pivot to Asia, coinciding with renewed U.S. interest in the area. A good expression of intent was Russia's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012 in Vladivostok, near Russia's borders with China and North Korea. Although its efforts in Asia have been limited by more direct interests in Russia's periphery and in Europe, Moscow recently has been able to look more to the east. Part of this renewed interest involves finding new export markets for Russian hydrocarbons. Russia's economy relies on energy exports, particularly crude oil and natural gas exported via pipeline to the West. However, Western Europe is diversifying its energy sources as new supplies come online out of a desire to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies . This has ...
Post a Comment
Read more

LONDON POLICE INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGE CRIMINALS TO ATTACK RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY

ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE A few days ago an unknown perpetrator trespassed on the territory of the Russian Trade Delegation in London, causing damage to the property and the vehicles belonging to the trade delegation , Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during the September 12 press briefing. The diplomat revealed the response by the London police was discouraging. Police told that the case does not have any prospects and is likely to be closed. This was made despite the fact that the British law enforcement was provided with video surveillance tapes and detailed information shedding light on the incident. By this byehavior, British law inforcements indirectly encourage criminals to continue attacks on Russian diplomatic property in the UK. Zakharova’s statement on “Trespassing on the Russian Trade Mission premises in London” ( source ): During our briefings, we have repeatedly discussed compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, sp...
1 comment
Read more