Leaked Pentagon paper – top Russian officers wanted to sabotage Ukraine war

The aim was purportedly to end the war while President Putin was undergoing chemotherapy.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

According to one of the recently leaked classified Pentagon documents, two of the highest officers in Russia recently planned to sabotage their own war effort in Ukraine while President Vladimir Putin was out of the picture because he was undergoing chemotherapy.

The document, which had been posted among dozens of others on the Discord site, stated that the authorities in Kyiv learned in mid-February from an anonymous Russian citizen “with access to Kremlin officials” that the country’s Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and National Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev were behind the plot.

“Russia planned to divert resources from Taganrog, Russia, to Mariupol, Ukraine and focus its attention on the southern front,” the document stated. “According to [redacted] source, Gerasimov opposed the offensive; he informed Putin that the Forces’ capabilities were superior to Russia’s and cautioned that Russia would suffer heavy casualties were it to proceed with the offensive.”

It then continued, “[Redacted] on 22 February indicated that Gerasimov reportedly planned to continue his efforts to sabotage the offensive, noting that he promised to ‘throw’ the so-called special military operation [Russia’s name for its invasion of Ukraine – ed.] by 5 March, when Putin was allegedly scheduled to start a round of chemotherapy and would thus be unable to influence the war effort.”

Although the paper did not state what specific ailment the Russian leader would be treated for, cancer was already mentioned last June in an American intelligence report. It had stated that Putin was treated last April for the disease, but as one intelligence official told Newsweek when discussing the report, “Putin is definitely sick… whether he is going to die soon is mere speculation.”

The ten months that have passed since that statement proved it to be wisely cautious, and the fact that two such senior members of the Kremlin wanted to wait until Putin was actually undergoing treatment that generally forces people to rest instead of work seemingly indicates that he is not usually in a weakened state.

Putin has not indicated any willingness to even begin negotiations on ending the war and is reportedly looking for more troops to pour into the fight.

The leaked document was marked “Top Secret,” indicating that only those with extremely high security clearance could have access to it. On Thursday, federal agents arrested Jack Teixeira, 21, who had official access to such documents as part of his job in cyber defense operations as a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s intelligence unit.

Texeira was charged on Friday under the Espionage Act, of unauthorized retention and transmission of classified national defense information for illegally disclosing dozens of intelligence documents on the internet in what is being considered the worst intelligence leak in the United States in over a decade.

The papers’ subjects ranged from the war in Ukraine to goings-on in such American allies as South Korea and Israel, with their veracity being challenged by some American officials. One such document on Israel said that American intelligence believed that members of the Mossad were secretly organizing anti-judicial reform demonstrations in the country, which the Israeli security agency vehemently denied.