The classified U.S. and NATO documents that leaked on social media could be forged; the Brazilian president got a response to his suggestion about ceding Crimea to Russia; and public endorsement for Donald Trump has even grown after he was indicted.
Meanwhile, the EU tries to finesse its relations with China, and the new Montenegrin president pledges to bring his country to the EY.
offers a digest of Western mass media at the end of the April 3–7, 2023, business week.
Classified U.S. documents pn Ukraine leaked on Internet
The Pentagon is investigating who may have smuggled the U.S. documents. Photo: Wikipedia
According to The New York Times, classified war documents detailing secret American and NATO plans for building up the Ukrainian military ahead of a planned offensive were posted on social media.
The Pentagon is investigating who may have been behind the leak of the documents, which appeared on Twitter and on Telegram, senior Biden administration officials said.
Military analysts said the documents appear to have been modified in certain parts from their original format, overstating American estimates of Ukrainian war dead and understating estimates of Russian troops killed.
The disclosures also include charts of anticipated weapons deliveries, military training schedules, and troop and battalion strengths as of March 1, but not combat plans.
For Russian military and intelligence officers, the documents represent a valuable source of information. For example, they mention the expenditure rate of HIMARS (high mobility artillery rocket systems).
Analysts have said it could be difficult to assess the impact of the documents’ disclosure on the frontline/
The leak is the first Russian intelligence breakthrough that has been made public since the full-scale war began
At the Friday meeting, the general Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine discussed ways to prevent leaks of military information, Reuters reports.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the president’s chief of staff, told Reuters that the leak contained a "very large amount of fictitious information" and constitutes a Russian disinformation operation to sow doubts about the offensive.
Give up Crimea: how Ukraine reacted to Brazil’s proposition
Lula da Silva was urged to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty. Photo: Wikipedia
On Thursday, April 6, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva proposed that Ukraine cede Crimea to Russia to stop the war, Euronews reports. Although he believes that Vladimir Putin cannot seize the territory of Ukraine, he suggested that Crimea might be discussed.
"The world needs tranquility... We have to find a solution," he said and put forward a proposal to mediate the conflict with a group of countries.
He also suggested that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "can't want everything."
Next week, he is due to present his proposal to Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
According to Le Figaro, the Brazilian president said he was "confident" as to the chances of success of this project.
Oleh Nikolenko, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian foreign ministry, responded to Silva's words by saying that although he appreciated the peace effort of the Brazilian president, Ukraine doesn’t trade its territories:
The prosecution of Trump: how his chances for presidency changed
Donald Trump hasn’t lost popularity. Photo: Getty Images
The prosecution of former President Donald Trump has evenly divided Americans but appears to have boosted his chances of winning the Republican nomination for the 2024 election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The poll conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, April 6 and 7, showed that 49% of all Americans think it was right for prosecutors to pursue the first in the U.S. history criminal case against a president or former president. Some 84% of self-described Democrats and only 16% of Republicans believe the charges are merited.
Some 40% of Republicans said the case made them more likely to vote for Trump in 2024, while 12% said it made them less likely to support him. Another 38% said it had no impact.
Trump leads the field for the Republican nomination by a wide margin, with 58% of Republicans saying he is their preferred nominee, which is 10% more than the result published on Monday.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not entered the race, came in second at 21%.
Meanwhile, 73% of Americans believed that Trump arranged payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal to keep them quiet about alleged relationships with him. However, 76% of Republicans think that the investigations against the former president are politically motivated.
Macron and von der Leyen visit China: what they want from Xi
Ursula von der Leyen and Emmanuel Macron visited China. Photo: Getty Images
French President Emmanuel Macron and president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen flew to Beijing, where they met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the BBC reports.
Their joint trip is the latest in a noticeable push from European leaders to engage with China, which has seen German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez paying visits in recent months.
Like them, Mr Macron and Ms von der Leyen are pressing Mr Xi on taking further steps to halt the Ukraine war, while also finessing the increasingly fraught trade relationship between the European Union and China, its biggest trading partner.
Macron met with Xi in China. Photo: Getty Images
European watchers expect them to work as a tag team. The French president is likely to play the good cop. An Élysée Palace spokesman told reporters that Mr Macron found "points of convergence with Chinese proposals" on ending the war.
Meanwhile, some have called Ms von der Leyen the "bad cop from Brussels", given her strong relationship with U.S. President Joe Biden and vocal support for NATO's position. Ms von der Leyen criticizes Xi Jinping for maintaining his friendship with Putin, calls China's peace plan "not viable", and has pushed the concept of "de-risking", a more moderate version of the U.S. idea of economic decoupling from China.
China has a relationship with Russia that gives it some leverage, said U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, in an interview with Euronews.
He believes that China's tries to have it both ways by allegedly trying to advance peace and at the same time continuing to support Russia.
The new Montenegrin president: pro-Russia or anti-Russia?
Jakov Milatovic: what will his foreign policy be like? Photo: Wikipedia
Montenegro’s president-elect Jakov Milatovic is pledging to speed up the country’s bid for membership in the European Union and to adhere to the bloc’s policy line toward Russia while pursuing stronger ties with Serbia and other Balkan neighbors, according to AP.
The president-elect’s commitment to EU membership appears to belie widespread accusations by pro-Western groups in Montenegro and in Serbia that he is a puppet of the pro-Russian leadership in Belgrade.
Milatovic, a 36-year-old Western-educated economics expert, won the presidential runoff election in Montenegro, defeating incumbent Milo Djukanovic who has been in power for more than three decades. Notably, pro-Serb and pro-Russian political groups backed Milatovic.
Relations between Serbia and Montenegro have deteriorated since Djukanovic took the country out of its union with Serbia in 2006 and later into NATO in 2017. During the election campaign, Djukanovic said voters were choosing between membership in the EU, or joining the "Serbian World" – a facsimile of the "Russian World."
Milatovic said that the key reasons for Djukanovic’s defeat were his long-held grip on power along with allegations of rampant corruption throughout his rule. The president-elect has said he will try to repair relations with Serbia as well as other neighboring Balkan states.
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