The Chancellor of Germany Olaf Solz promised today that the issue that has arisen after the publication by Russia of German Air Force officers discussing support for Ukraine.
Speaking on the sidelines of his visit to the Vatican, Chancellor Soltz spoke of “a very serious issue”. The conversation between the German defense officials was made public yesterday, Friday, by the head of the Russian state television network RT Margarita Simonyan.
In it, high-ranking Air Force officers discuss the theoretical possibilities of possibly deploying German Taurus cruise missiles in Ukraine.
Scholz has repeatedly ruled out giving Taurus missiles to Ukraine, despite repeated requests from Kiev, expressing fears that Germany could be dragged deeper into the war launched in February 2022 by the Kremlin.
The German Ministry of Defense announced later today that he believes an internal conversation between high-ranking Air Force officers was intercepted.
“According to our assessment, a conversation was intercepted [μεταξύ αξιωματούχων της Πολεμικής Αεροπορίας]. At the moment we cannot say for sure whether changes have been made to the recorded or transcribed version circulating on social media,” a ministry spokesman in Berlin told the German news agency.
The quote also included a diplomatically sensitive reference to the British having “some people on the ground” in Ukraine regarding the deployment of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles in the country.
The report follows anger in Britain over what London saw as indiscretion on the part of Soltz.
Soltz had stated, in the context of the discussion about them Taurusthat “what the British and French are doing in terms of target control and target control escort cannot be done by Germany,” without elaborating further.
Some see the statement as a sign that French and British forces are supporting control of Ukraine-supplied cruise missiles. London immediately denied that this was happening.
When pressed today by a German Agency correspondent about the possible diplomatic implications of the wiretapping of the conversation on the German armed forces, Scholz said: “That is why the matter is now being clarified very carefully, very intensively and very quickly. This is also necessary.”
Air Force Inspector General Ingo Gerharts was among those present at the meeting, which was said to be in preparation for a briefing by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
The conversation heard on the recording concerns whether Taurus cruise missiles would theoretically be capable of destroying the bridge built between Russia and the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in violation of international law. The conversation also concerns whether Ukraine could carry out the strike without their involvement German armed forces. In the recording it becomes clear that the German MPs do not want to give Kiev cruise missiles.
Sources told the German news agency earlier today that the recording is authentic and that the conversation took place on Webex, an American-made online conferencing platform.
The German Defense Ministry is investigating whether the conversation was intercepted. “The Federal Office of the Military Counterintelligence Service has taken all the necessary measures,” a military spokesman said yesterday, Friday evening.
German MPs responded with calls for improvements. “We urgently need to increase our security and counter-espionage because we are obviously vulnerable in this area,” Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmerman, chairwoman of the Bundestag’s defense committee, told German news agency RND.
“The question is whether this is an isolated incident or whether there is a structural security problem,” said Constantin von Notch, chairman of the Parliamentary Audit Committee.
The release of the case prompted speculation about its timing, with Strack-Zimmerman speculating that Russia aimed to prevent Solz from giving Kiev Taurus missiles. She told RND that spying “is part of Russia’s hybrid warfare toolbox” and added that it was not surprising that conversations were intercepted. “It was only a matter of time before it became public knowledge,” he said.
Others have speculated that the leak may be an attempt by Russia to divert public discussion from recent revelations or the funeral of dissident Alexei Navalny.
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