Last week, dozens of secret documents from the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies related to US involvement in the Ukraine war began to circulate on social media platforms. Over the weekend, US officials confirmed the veracity of the documents in statements to major media outlets.

The leaked documents make clear that the US and NATO are the main driving forces of the war, with the Ukrainian military serving as a mercenary proxy force. They show that NATO has deployed over 150 military personnel to Ukraine and demonstrate the degree to which NATO funds, arms, trains and directly commands the Ukrainian military.

They substantiate the fact that the war is the creation of NATO, which has spent billions of dollars to hijack the Ukrainian political system and turn its population into cannon fodder for a devastating war that has led to hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian casualties.

In other words, the documents expose the entire narrative of the war promoted by the Biden White House as a lie.

In May 2022, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki was asked whether the war in Ukraine was a “NATO proxy war.” Psaki replied, “I know that is the Russian talking point on this, but it is not a proxy war… This is a war between Russia and Ukraine. NATO is not involved.”

The documents have exposed this statement as a complete falsehood. And they have exposed the US media, which has systematically promoted the Biden administration’s lie that NATO is not involved in the war, as nothing more than the propaganda arm of US imperialism.

The documents substantiate in concrete detail what the World Socialist Web Site has previously reported.

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.”

The documents point to a massive disparity between the US’s public and internal presentation of the level of Russian casualties. On February 2, the New York Times reported, citing US officials, that “The number of Russian troops killed and wounded in Ukraine is approaching 200,000.” By contrast, the internal documents pointed to between 35,000 and 43,000 Russian soldiers killed in action.

The New York Times emphasized that the documents show “how deeply the United States has burrowed into Russia’s security and intelligence services, allowing Washington to warn Ukraine about planned strikes and gain insights into the strength of Moscow’s war machine.” But this only demonstrates the fact that the US would have been perfectly aware that its efforts to bring Ukraine into the NATO alliance would provoke a military response from Russia with catastrophic consequences for the Ukrainian people.

Other portions of the documents reveal the extent of US spying on its “allies and partners” around the world. The Washington Post wrote that “in a reminder that the United States also spies on its allies, another document reports that South Korea’s National Security Council in early March ‘grappled’ with a U.S. request that the country provide artillery ammunition to Ukraine.”  The documents, the Post wrote, “appear to reveal where the CIA has recruited human agents privy to the closed-door conversations of world leaders.”  The Wall Street Journal reported, “The documents also appear to include intelligence on internal matters in a variety of nations, including allies Israel, South Korea and the U.K.”

Media reports have downplayed the most explosive component of the documents: The fact that US and NATO troops are on the ground in Ukraine, and that the US is leading and coordinating the planned Ukrainian offensive.

Instead, they have focused on tracking down the supposed source of the leak and the efforts by the Pentagon to find them.

The entire US media has engaged in systematic self-censorship. They have refused to publish the documents, or even excerpts of them, despite the fact that they show massive lying and criminality by the Biden administration in waging an illegal and undeclared war.

This is entirely in keeping with the role of the US print and broadcast media, which has over the past year unleashed a torrent of war propaganda, at the same time calling for ever-greater US involvement while concealing the massive role US and NATO are playing in the war.

In other words, the world has been led to the brink of nuclear war, on the basis of complete fabrications by the government and the media.

While the release of the documents may have been motivated by dissatisfaction within the US military over the conduct of the war, the case could be made that a deeper intention in releasing the documents is to build support for a military escalation.

Already, the US media is hard at work turning the leaks into an argument for even greater US military intervention. “Leaked Documents Suggest Ukrainian Air Defense Is in Peril if Not Reinforced,” writes the New York Times. “A huge influx of munitions is needed to keep Russia’s air force from changing the course of the war.”

The leaked documents appear as the US is preparing an even deeper involvement in the conflict. Whether or not the plans for a spring offensive outlined in the documents materialize, the US and NATO are planning a massive deployment of forces to the NATO states bordering Russia following the accession of Finland into the alliance.

On March 18, Politico reported, “In the coming months, the alliance will accelerate efforts to stockpile equipment along the alliance’s eastern edge and designate tens of thousands of forces that can rush to allies’ aid on short notice… The numbers will be large, with officials floating the idea of up to 300,000 NATO forces.”

Ultimately, the systematic lies by the government and media about the war are aimed at misleading the “enemy at home,” the working class, which is being dragged into a bloodbath.

These documents show that a US war against Russia has been initiated entirely behind the backs of the public. The obvious conclusion is that, if the US decides it is necessary to send NATO troops directly into Ukraine, it will do so using the same methods it has deployed so far: A systematic campaign of media lies and manipulation.

On April 8, WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North published a statement entitled “Forward to May Day 2023! Build a mass movement of workers and youth against war and for socialism!” It explained: 

Two processes dominate this year’s celebration of the international unity of the working class: the war in Ukraine, which is escalating toward a global conflagration, and an international resurgence of the class struggle. These two processes are profoundly related. The same economic, geopolitical and social contradictions that drive the imperialist ruling elites onto the path of war provide the objective impulse for the radicalization of the working class and the outbreak of revolutionary struggles.

The online rally, sponsored by the International Committee of the Fourth International, the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality and the World Socialist Web Site, will be held on April 30. We urge all of those who seek to oppose the escalation of the war to register today.