The German Ministry of Defense confirmed on Saturday that a confidential discussion between high-ranking Bundeswehr officers regarding the war in Ukraine, which was leaked by Russian State media, was authentic.
“According to our assessment, a conversation in the Air Force was intercepted. We cannot currently say with certainty whether changes were made to the recorded or written version that is circulating on social media,” a spokeswoman for the ministry told German public broadcaster ARD.
The head of Russian state broadcaster RT, Margarita Simonyan, on Friday published what she said was an audio recording between German officers, including the chief of the Air Force, Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described it as “a very serious matter.”
“It will now be investigated very carefully, very intensively, and very quickly,” Scholz said on Saturday during a visit to Rome.
What else was on the audio
As aired by Simonya, the audio includes a discussion about whether Taurus cruise missiles would be capable of destroying a bridge, seemingly a reference to the new bridge linking Russian-occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland over the Kerch Strait.
The recording was apparently made from a video conference between four Luftwaffe offices discussing Russia’s war in Ukraine.
On the audio leak, they spoke about ways German officers could supply Ukrainians with targeting information without appearing to be directly involved in the conflict with Russia.
The clip also contains reference to the British having “a few people on the ground” in connection with the deployment of their Storm Shadow cruise missiles delivered to Ukraine.
German outlet Der Spiegel reported that the virtual meeting did not take place via a secure line, but via the Webex platform.
German lawmakers alarmed
“If this story turns out to be true, it would be a highly problematic incident,” Konstantin von Notz, the chairman of the Bundestag’s parliamentary oversight committee, told broadcast network Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.
The Green party politician said it should be determined, “whether this is a one-off incident or a structural safety problem.”
Roderich Kiesewetter, of the center-right Christian Democratic Union and deputy chairman of the Bundestag’s parliamentary oversight committee said it seemed Russia leaked the conversation to put pressure Germany not to supply Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
“A number of other conversations will certainly have been intercepted and may be leaked at a later date for Russia’s benefit,” he told broadcaster ZDF.
Chancellor Scholz has so far refused to send the Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
Earlier this week, he said the missiles range and the likely need for assistance from German Bundeswehr troops was problematic and could be construed as direct or indirect participation in the war.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova demanded that Germany “promptly” provide an explanation and claimed the audio was evidence of a “hybrid war” the West was waging on Russia.
lo/msh (dpa, AFP)
