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Germany to investigate Russia’s apparent
interception of military talks on Ukraine
Chancellor Olaf Scholz describes as ‘very serious’ the
circulation of a recording purportedly showing German officials discussing
delivery of long-range missiles to Kyiv
Agencies
Sun 3 Mar
2024 02.38 CET
The German
chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has promised a full investigation after a recording
purportedly of confidential army talks on the Ukraine war was circulated on
Russian social media, in a huge embarrassment for Berlin.
A German
defence ministry spokesperson confirmed to Agence France-Presse that the
ministry believed a conversation in the air force division was “intercepted”.
“We are currently unable to say for certain whether changes were made to the
recorded or transcribed version that is circulating on social media,” they
said.
Margarita
Simonyan, a Russian state TV journalist and the head of Russia Today, posted an
audio file on her Telegram channel and claimed it revealed German officers
“discussing how to strike the Crimea bridge”, which links Russia to the
Ukrainian peninsula it seized and annexed in 2014.
Participants
in the call also appear to discuss the possible delivery of Taurus cruise
missiles to Kyiv, which Scholz has publicly so far firmly rejected. They also
talk about the training of Ukrainian soldiers, and possible military targets.
Kyiv has long called on Germany to provide it with Taurus missiles, which can
reach targets up to 500km (300 miles) away.
Reuters
listened to the 38-minute recording but could not independently confirm its
authenticity.
Scholz,
speaking on a visit to Rome, called the potential leak “very serious” and said
it was “now being clarified very carefully, very intensively and very quickly”.
Russia’s
embassy in Berlin did not respond to an emailed request for comment on Saturday
about allegations of possible spying. A Russian foreign ministry spokesperson
said on social media on Friday: “We demand an explanation from Germany”,
without detailing its particular concerns.
Germany’s
ARD broadcaster described the leak as a “catastrophe” for the German secret
services.
According
to Der Spiegel magazine, the videoconference was held on the WebEx platform,
and not on a secret internal army network.
“If this
story turns out to be true, it would be a highly problematic event,” Green
party politician Konstantin von Notz told the RND broadcaster.
Speaking at
a diplomatic forum in Turkey on Saturday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei
Lavrov, said the recording indicated that Ukraine and its backers “do not want
to change their course at all, and want to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia
on the battlefield”.
A Russian
foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, demanded that Germany
“promptly” provide explanations for the discussion. “Attempts to avoid
answering the questions will be regarded as an admission of guilt,” she said.
Former
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of the Security Council,
said on Telegram: “Our age-old rivals – the Germans – have again turned into
our sworn enemies.”
Marie-Agnes
Strack-Zimmermann, chair of the defence committee in Germany’s parliament, said
Moscow’s intention was “obvious”. She said Scholz was being “warned against”
supplying Ukraine with Taurus missiles.
“We
urgently need to increase our security and counterintelligence, because we are
obviously vulnerable in this area,” she told the Funke media group.
Roderich
Kiesewetter, from Germany’s opposition conservatives, warned that further
recordings might also be leaked, telling the Handelsblatt newspaper that he
considered the reports to be authentic.
“Russia is
of course showing how heavily it uses espionage and sabotage as part of the
hybrid war,” he was quoted as saying. “It is to be expected that much more was
intercepted and leaked in order to influence decisions, discredit and
manipulate people.”
With Agence
France-Presse and Reuters
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