Leaked US intelligence docs could undermine Lithuania's security – advisor

VILNIUS – If reports of an alleged leak of top-secret US intelligence documents are true, this would also undermine Lithuania's security, says Asta Skaisgiryte, chief foreign policy adviser to the Lithuanian president.

Her comment came in response to the online release of dozens of photos of alleged US documents, including assessments and secret intelligence reports not only on Ukraine and Russia, but also highly sensitive analyses of US allies.

"Everyone is talking about those leaked documents now, but the Ukrainians immediately stated they were fabricated document and that the Russian secret services might be behind it," the adviser told Lithuania's Ziniu Radijas news radio on Tuesday.

"Does this undermine our security? If it turns out to be real, of course it undermines our security when extracts of military operations, defense-related documents emerge in public sources. This makes life easier for the opponents, and it should not be the case," Skaisgiryte said.

The leak is currently being investigated the US Department of Justice. The documents circulating online pose "a very serious risk to national security and have the potential to spread disinformation," said Chris Meagher, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs.

Some document photos may have circulated online for weeks, if not months, before they began to receive media attention last week.

"The responsible US institutions are currently conducting an investigation and it will probably tell us more about whether this is a fabrication or whether there is some kind of leak," Skaisgiryte noted.

Meagher refrained from commenting on the photos' authenticity and said a Pentagon team was working to determine if the documents were genuine, but noted that images circulating online seemed to show sensitive information.