Pentagon leak promoted by pro-Russian network run by former Navy noncommissioned officer on US soil
The Wall Street Journal revealed that one of the people that helped promote and spread the leaked Pentagon documents was a former Navy noncommissioned officer on U.S. soil who developed a pro-Russia network on social media.
"A purported Russian blogger known as Donbass Devushka, which translates as Donbas Girl, is the face of a network of pro-Kremlin social-media, podcasting, merchandise and fundraising accounts. But the person who hosted podcasts as Donbass Devushka and oversees these accounts is a Washington-state-based former U.S. enlisted aviation electronics technician whose real name is Sarah Bils," the report revealed.
Bils, who is 37 years old, served at the naval air station on Whidbey Island until last year. All the while, she was promoting the Russian military and paramilitary Wagner Group, which WSJ described as "among the most widely followed English-language social-media outlets promoting Russia’s views."
She confessed to raising money for the podcast under the name when the paper reached out to her. She claimed, however, she's one of 15 people from around the world in the network.
It was early April when the Donbass Devushka Telegram account posted the leaked classified documents to 65,000 followers. Russian social media accounts then reposted the documents.
“I obviously know the gravity of top-secret classified materials. We didn’t leak them,” she said.