Current:Home > reviewsLeaked Pentagon docs show rift between U.S. and U.N. over Ukraine -RiskRadar
Leaked Pentagon docs show rift between U.S. and U.N. over Ukraine
View
Date:2025-04-26 00:09:32
United Nations – Fallout from the leaked trove of classified defense and intelligence documents continues, as some of the material purports to show possible surveillance by the U.S. of the United Nations secretary-general and a disagreement over the handling of a key initiative to help export grain from Ukraine amid Russia's invasion.
Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old airman in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, has been arrested for his alleged connection to the leaked documents, some of which may have been doctored.
Leaked documents first reported by BBC focus in part on the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a series of agreements brokered by the U.N. and Turkey to move grain out of Ukraine's ports and assist Russia in the export of fertilizers.
One of the documents appeared to reveal that the U.S. felt that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' "actions are undermining broader efforts to hold Moscow accountable for its actions in Ukraine," in order to protect the grain deal, which he considers key to addressing global food insecurity. Gutteres has gone so far as to tell Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the U.N. will continue efforts to improve Russia's ability to export, even if that involves sanctioned Russian entities or individuals, the documents showed.
Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Western governments have coordinated harsh sanctions against Russian officials and entities, aimed at crippling the nation's economy and the ability of its citizens and companies to do business with the rest of the world.
But Ukraine's U.N. ambassador pushed back on the characterization of Guterres as friendly to Moscow. "He made an important contribution to allow Ukraine and U.N. together with Turkey sign the Istanbul agreement within his Black Sea Grain Initiative," Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told CBS News on Thursday.
The documents, if authentic, also reveal surveillance by the U.S. of the U.N. chief. In particular, the retelling of a discussion between Miguel Graca, the Director of the Executive Office of the U.N. Secretary-General, and Gutteres in which the U.N. chief appeared annoyed at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's request for Gutteres to travel to Kyiv. Guterres has made several trips to Ukraine since the start of the invasion, including his latest trip to Kyiv last month.
"The secretary-general has been at this job, and in the public eye, for a long time. He's not surprised by the fact that people are spying on him and listening in to his private conversations," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told CBS News. "What is surprising is the malfeasance or incompetence that allows that such private conversations to be distorted and become public."
Dujarric on Thursday told reporters, "We take whatever measures we can, but the need to respect the inviolability of U.N. communications applies to every member state."
Ukraine also dismissed the insinuation that the U.N. sides with Russia in the conflict.
"Secretary-General Guterres made his position on the full-scale aggression of Russia against Ukraine very clear on the night of the invasion, a position now guided by several U.N. General Assembly resolutions supported by the overwhelming majority of the member states," Kyslytsya said.
"The secretary-general has never misled me. He is very attentive to the issues I bring to his attention. He follows on my requests even when he travels," Kyslytsya said, adding, "I think that Antonio Guterres is a world-class statesman with many decades of experience of dealing with many dramatic challenges."
Guterres has shuttled back and forth between U.N. Headquarters, Moscow and Kyiv since the war began last February. He has known Russian President Vladimir Putin for many years, having first met him in 2000 when Guterres was prime minister of Portugal. Guterres in 2016 visited the Kremlin as one of his first foreign trips after he was elected to steer the U.N.
"Guterres has been commendably frank in criticizing Russia, but the Black Sea deal was a big win for him and he is locked into defending it," Richard Gowan, an expert on the global body and director of the U.N. International Crisis Group, told CBS News.
It was still unclear as of Thursday how much of the information in the leaked documents, some of which officials have said are from late February and early March, is accurate. Some of the images appeared to have been manipulated.
Sources told CBS News that the Department of Defense and the intelligence community are actively reviewing and assessing the validity of the photographed documents that are circulating on social media.
The U.S. is assuring allies and partners of its "commitment to safeguarding intelligence and fidelity to our partnerships," a U.S. source told CBS News.
Nate Evans, spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the U.N., told CBS News that Guterres and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., "have a friendly, strong, and collaborative relationship."
Eleanor Watson and Camilla Schick contributed to this report.
- In:
- Air National Guard
- Massachusetts
- Ukraine
- Politics
- Russia
- United Nations
- Jack Teixeira
- The Pentagon
Pamela Falk is the CBS News correspondent covering the United Nations, and an international lawyer.
TwitterveryGood! (69389)
Related
- What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
- Rep. Ocasio-Cortez says New York City mayor should resign
- Deion Sanders, Colorado's 'Florida boys' returning home as heavy underdogs at Central Florida
- Aging and ailing, ‘Message Tree’ at Woodstock concert site is reluctantly cut down
- Buckingham Palace staff under investigation for 'bar brawl'
- U.S. wrestler Alan Vera dies at 33 after suffering cardiac arrest during soccer game
- Hot Diggity Dog! Disney & Columbia Just Dropped the Cutest Fall Collab, With Styles for the Whole Family
- UNLV’s starting QB says he will no longer play over ‘representations’ that ‘were not upheld’
- How to watch new prequel series 'Dexter: Original Sin': Premiere date, cast, streaming
- US public schools banned over 10K books during 2023-2024 academic year, report says
Ranking
- Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow owns a $3 million Batmobile Tumbler
- Sean Diddy Combs and Kim Porter’s Kids Break Silence on Rumors About Her Death and Alleged Memoir
- Tarek El Moussa Shares Update on Ex Christina Hall Amid Divorce
- Video captures Brittany Furlan jump into rescue mode after coyote snatches dog from backyard
- Israel lets Palestinians go back to northern Gaza for first time in over a year as cease
- DWTS’ Brooks Nader and Gleb Savchenko Detail “Chemistry” After Addressing Romance Rumors
- Father of teenage suspect in North Carolina mass shooting pleads guilty to gun storage crime
- Rapper Fatman Scoop's cause of death revealed a month after death: Reports
Recommendation
Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
X releases its first transparency report since Elon Musk’s takeover
Philadelphia police exhume 8 bodies from a potter’s field in the hope DNA testing can help ID them
Harley-Davidson recalls over 41,000 motorcycles: See affected models
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
Sister Wives' Janelle Brown Details Bittersweet Memories of Late Son Garrison Brown
Reality TV star Julie Chrisley to be re-sentenced in bank fraud and tax evasion case
Senate approves criminal contempt resolution against Steward Health Care CEO