The ‘classified’ documents left behind by Russian troops were posted to Facebook the .Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Ukraine’s defense ministry said that its armed forces have seized secret battle plans left behind by Russian troops.The ministry says the documents suggest Russia’s war with Ukraine would last 15 days.An invasion map, a table of callsigns and a list of personnel were among the documents, according to the Ukrainian defense ministry.Ukraine’s defense ministry said on Wednesday that its armed forces have seized secret battle plans left behind by Russian soldiers that it says suggest Russia’s war with Ukraine would last 15 days.
The seized “classified” documents were posted to Facebook by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and show the war plans of one of the units of the battalion tactical group of the 810th Separate Guards Naval Infantry Brigade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
An invasion map, a table of callsigns and a list of personnel were among the documents, according to the Ukrainian defense ministry.
“Thanks to the successful actions of one of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s [units] Russian occupiers are losing not only equipment and manpower,” the defense ministry said.“In panic attacks, they are leaving classified documents.”
The defense ministry said that based on the documents, Russia approved its invasion of Ukraine on January 18, 2022.
“The operation itself should last 15 days” from February 20 to March 6, the ministry said based on its review of the documents.
Insider could not independently verify this conclusion.
One of the documents posted by the defense ministry appears to be dated “18.01.22,” — or January 18, 2022, a full month before the Russians attacked — while another planning document of callsigns for different units spans the dates February 20 to March 6, with daily code name changes for different Russian commands to contact each other without disclosing their identity.
The documents do not appear to reveal any information about Russian forces taking any Ukrainian city.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his country’s invasion of Ukraine in the early morning hours of February 24.The full extent of Putin’s plan to assault and possibly occupy Ukraine has been unclear, but a former Russian deputy foreign minister told Al Jazeera that he had information that the Russian leader wanted to declare victory within a week — a goal that now appears extremely unlikely, with Russian forces only having seized one major Ukrainian city after six days of fighting.
The Ukrainian defense ministry said that the “final objective” by these Russian forces who had the planning documents “was to block and seize” the southeastern Ukrainian city of Melitopol.
“That is why you should not trust when a prisoner of war is saying again that he or she came to the exercises and got lost! They knew, they planned precisely and they had been preparing,” the Ukrainian defense ministry said on Facebook.
It added, “Our response to the Russian occupiers is the following: keep leaving your vehicles and classified documents, they will be useful for our defenders and The Hague.”
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