Leaked War Document Says U.S. And NATO Have Special Forces in Ukraine

Leaked document has a legend of US/NATO special forces in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/Po0pRJ6gMx

� Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 7, 2023

Should probably be emphasized that this is the first known instance of official documentary confirmation of US "boots on the ground" in Ukraine. It's right there in black and white. (And no, those "SOF" personnel are not categorized as merely "guarding the embassy")

� Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 8, 2023

Then there's "MSAU" (Marine Security Guard Security Augmentation Unit) which also doesn't exactly have a firmly delineated purview pic.twitter.com/0iwvgI6re0

� Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 8, 2023

Recall, it was reported in October that Biden had secretly issued a "presidential covert action finding" to authorize US "boots on the ground" in Ukraine. Not a whole lot of media or Congressional interest in following up on that particular topic, though https://t.co/gWDpZ6QWcT

� Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 8, 2023

These head counts of SOF personnel from the leaked NATO documents are only going to include �white� SOF, given the low level of classification. These are likely the guys the NYT reported are �coordinating the flow of weapons.�

Not shown on the map: JSOC & CIA pic.twitter.com/J6zzUMCa3v

� Seth Harp (@sethharpesq) April 10, 2023

The main revelations from the documents are:

- 97 NATO Special Operations troops are currently deployed inside Ukraine.

- A total of 100 US personnel are deployed inside Ukraine, including 71 US military personnel.

- The US military sees the training of the Ukrainian military, NATO deployments in Europe and US military deployments inside Ukraine as being interoperable, and reports all of them on a single page.

- The US has drawn up detailed maps for a planned offensive operation aimed at cutting off Crimea from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, with "favorable" conditions for the offensive beginning in mid-May.

- The US and its NATO allies are training, funding and arming three quarters of the forces that are going to be thrown into combat as part of this offensive. One of the documents declares that "12 combat credible [brigades] can be generated for the spring Counteroffensive: 3 internationally by Ukraine, and 9 are US, Allied & Partner trained and equipped."

French reporter returning from Ukraine "Americans are directly in charge of the war on the ground." pic.twitter.com/m5yr7far6N

� no one (@antiwar_soldier) April 11, 2022