I’m still strongly considering this might be an engineered limited hang-out. The fact the Ukrainian casualty numbers were so low (and then edited after the release) is suspicious. Indicates either they themselves internally believe the numbers and pass them around (or that the real numbers are more classified still and for some reason lying to intelligence analysts is considered a good idea though considering this guy is just military the CIA may maintain lying to the military is necessary and good to have their support and only CIA may have real numbers and/or disclaimers that say “Ukrainian numbers are bullshit”) OR that this whole thing was cobbled together with a mixture of lies and truths and deliberately released. Perhaps both to mislead the Russians and perhaps as bait for more intel agency funding for spying on gaming communities and spying in general, greater surveillance powers to do that to “prevent” this kind of thing kind of like how FBI engineers and grooms terrorists then stops them and holds that out as evidence of why they need funding. Something along those lines. The whole thing just kind of smells too rosy, because if the Ukrainian numbers were higher and more realistic and they claimed it was a real leak, westerners of the more curious variety might begin to question how things are going over there. Whereas this looks bad but doesn’t undermine the core narrative that at least the Ukrainians are doing well and we should continue funding them and using them as a proxy in a war against Russia.

This guy could be a patsy under such a situation. Could have been goaded into it, provided the engineered materials, etc.