Schumer requests all-Senate classified briefing

A spokesperson for US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told CNN that Schumer has requested a classified briefing for all senators on the leaked classified US documents that appear to contain information about the war in Ukraine.

Investigations and impact: The US Justice Department is investigating how the trove of highly sensitive documents ended up on social media sites.

The Defense Department is still reviewing the matter and has taken steps to tighten the flow of such highly sensitive documents, officials said, which are normally available on any given day to hundreds of people across the government.

While the Pentagon has stood up an “interagency effort” to assess the impact of the leak, US officials and close allies already fear the revelations could jeopardize sensitive sources and compromise important foreign relationships.

Read more about what's believed to be in the documents.

The Russian parliament, the State Duma, voted in favor of amendments to a bill that would allow for the electronic delivery of military call-up papers in addition to traditional letters. 

The bill passed through its third reading in the lower chamber of Russia’s parliament Tuesday. It now needs to be approved by the upper chamber, the Federation Council, which is scheduled to meet Wednesday. The final step is for the bill to be signed by President Vladimir Putin before it becomes law.

The Kremlin said Tuesday the amendments to military conscription legislation are not connected to mobilization, dismissing rumors of a new wave of enlistment in Russia.

Asked during a regular call with reporters if the Kremlin is concerned that the proposed law, if passed, would trigger another wave of a mass exodus of Russians, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, "Absolutely not. It has nothing to do with mobilization; it has to do with military registration." 

The State Duma published the bill on Tuesday. According to the document, electronic summonses for military service will be equated to paper summons. Currently, conscription documents in Russia must be hand-delivered by the local military enlistment office or through an employer.

A person will be considered notified even if they have not seen the call-up papers or email and from the moment of receipt of the summons. Those liable for military service will be banned from traveling abroad.

Remember: Russia’s "partial mobilization" for its war in Ukraine, which was announced in September, resulted in a significant number of citizens fleeing Russia, as CNN previously reported.

The Kremlin acknowledged mistakes were made in its military draft process, but maintains there is no discussion of a new wave of mobilization.

Volunteers stand next to the bodies of members of a civilian convoy killed near the village of Kurylivka in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on October 1. (Vitalii Hnidyi/Reuters)

Nearly 8,500 civilians are confirmed to have been killed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a statement Monday.

The OHCHR said it had recorded 22,734 civilian casualties in Ukraine between the beginning of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022 until April 9, 2023 — with 8,490 civilians killed and 14,244 injured.

The actual figures are likely to be “considerably higher,” the OHCHR cautioned, because information from some frontline locations such as Mariupol and Severodonetsk had been delayed, with many reports pending corroboration. 

Most confirmed civilian deaths occurred in Ukrainian government-controlled territory that is under attack by Russia, according to the OHCHR, with 3,927 killed in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which have seen some of the bloodiest battles in the war so far. At least 1,894 civilians have been killed in territory occupied by the Russian Federation when the casualties occurred, the OHCHR said. 

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a man on suspicion of treason, state news agency TASS reported Tuesday. He is accused of transferring money to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The man was detained in Khabarovsk, a city in Russia’s southeast, after making “transfers of personal funds for the purchase of weapons, ammunition and uniforms by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the FSB said, according to TASS.

He faces a prison sentence of 12 to 20 years and a possible additional fine of up to 500,000 rubles (around $6,000) if found guilty of treason, TASS reported.

The Pentagon from above on March 3, 2022. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

Some of the information in the highly classified leaked Pentagon documents was “not secret at all," according to the head of Ukraine’s National Security Council. 

Ukraine is in constant contact with its key allies, such as the US, the UK, Germany and Poland, according to Danilov.

"The data for conducting certain operations, the size of the units, who is involved and in what direction - this information is absolutely secret. If someone thinks he has it, I can only congratulate him. But I don't know where he could have them from," he said.

“For the other part of the information - if it was indeed secret - the agencies in the United States and the United Kingdom will know exactly where it came from. And why it surfaced at this particular time," added Danilov.

The start of Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive will be decided by the staff of the Commander-in-Chief at the very last moment, stressed Danilov.

"If someone believes that we have only one option, it does not correspond to reality. Even three options would not be much," Danilov said in the interview.

"Intelligence agencies need to be more vigilant when it comes to classified documents," he added. 

Some context: Ukraine has had to alter some of its military plans after the leak of highly classified Pentagon documents, a source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskytold CNN.

However, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has said he believes the documents have “nothing to do with Ukraine’s real plans” and are based on “a large amount of fictitious information” disseminated by Russia.

Paul Whelan stands inside a defendants' cage during a hearing at a court in Moscow, Russia, on August 23, 2019. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images)

Paul Whelan, an American wrongfully detained in Russia, was able to call home on Monday for the first time in nearly two weeks, his brother David Whelan said Tuesday.

"We been led to believe, erroneously, that Paul had been moved to LPU-21, the prison hospital," David Whelan said in an email to journalists. Such a move has happened in the past, leaving Paul Whelan unable to call his parents or the embassy.

"The Ministry of Defense did come to IK-17 to recruit prisoners to become war criminals like the rest of the Russian military. But Paul and some other prisoners were sequestered within IK-17, not transferred out," he said. 

"The prison administration claims that the phones have been out of order from March 30 through to April 9th or 10th. Russia's infrastructure appears so brittle it could be true, or the prison could just be playing silly buggers again," David Whelan said.

David Whelan said it seemed his brother has become aware of the case of another wrongfully detained American — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

The Biden administration has urged the Russians to immediately release both Gershkovich and Paul Whelan.

South Korea has claimed that a "considerable amount" of the material leaked from the Pentagon was fabricated, as US officials scramble to contain the effects of the leak.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian refugees continue to cross the border into Poland, with 400,000 new arrivals in the past week taking the total number to 11 million since the start of the invasion.

Here are the latest headlines:

Reporter for U.S. newspaper The Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich in an undated handout image. (The Wall Street Journal/Reuters)

Detained US journalist Evan Gershkovich violated Russian law, the Kremlin maintained Tuesday, in response to the US State Department having designated him as being wrongfully detained.

“The United States could and should protect the rights of its citizen, who was caught red-handed and violated the relevant laws of the Russian Federation. That is what he is suspected of. That is all I can say,” Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists during a regular conference call.

Russian investigators formally charged Gershkovich with espionage, Russian state media reported, adding he denied the accusations. A Moscow court on April 18 will hear an appeal filed by Gershkovich’s lawyers against his arrest, Russian state media said citing the court. The correspondent is currently held in the notorious Leftereovo pre-detention center until May 29.

What the US is saying: CNN reported on Monday that the US State Department officially designated Gershkovich as wrongfully detained by Russia.

The designation gives further backing to the assertions by the US government and the Wall Street Journal that the espionage charges against the reporter are baseless. It will empower the Biden administration to explore avenues such as a prisoner swap to try to secure Gershkovich’s release.

CNN's Jennifer Hansler contributed to this post.

Ukrainian Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak gives an interview in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 16. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

Ukraine needs more long-range weapons and “less contemplation on leaks,” said Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, referring to the recent leak of classified Pentagon documents.

“If we had time, we could watch the RF [the Russian Federation] fall apart & its ‘elites’ devour each other. But we don't have it, as our people are dying," tweeted Podolyak, an advisor to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, on Tuesday

Some context: Ukraine has pushed for long range weapons in order to be able to strike ammunition depots and logistics hubs that Russian forces have moved out of range of existing systems.

In January, Ukrainian officials asked for longer range missiles that can reach inside Russia.

But Western allies have so far been careful not to provide Ukraine with systems that can reach Russia in order to reduce the risk of escalating the conflict.

CNN's Tim Lister and Fred Pleitgen contributed to this post.