The diplomatic damage done by the Pentagon leak about Ukraine won’t last long

Allies will be wary of letting the fallout meddle with their support for Kyiv, writes Chris Stevenson

Such leaks remind countries like Russia – as well as US allies – of the sheer scale and reach of Washington’s operations (EPA)

As the administration of Joe Biden scrambles to assess the damage done after classified Pentagon documents made their way into the public domain, US officials will also need to soothe the country’s allies.

The effects of the leak will be felt much more acutely in the short term than in the long term, if previous incidents are anything to go by. After WikiLeaks published American diplomatic cables in 2010, the US was quick to play up the severity of the security risk, and how the episode could affect the country’s diplomatic operations. The same arguments were made after Edward Snowden’s disclosures of National Security Agency (NSA) documents in 2013.

Pentagon officials have said that the latest incident poses “a very serious risk to national security” and that it has “the potential to spread disinformation”. In the Wikileaks and Snowden incidents, the long-term impact was overblown. There is no doubt, though, that this leak is embarrassing for the US, and there will be a need to reassure those countries with whom it shares information.