.png)
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
