The leak of information about a meeting between German Army officers, the content of which was disclosed by Russia, is an “attack” that aims to divide Europe, according to the German Government. The Kremlin accuses Germany of planning to attack Russian territory.
The release on Friday of a recording of a meeting between some leaders of the German armed forces continues to generate shock waves. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius accused Russia of waging an “information war” with Germany for having intercepted and disseminated confidential military information.
Moscow’s objective, Pistorius said this Monday, “is to use this recording to destabilize and unnerve us”. “Hope [o Presidente russo, Vladimir] Putin cannot achieve this”, he added.
On Friday, the director of the RT channel, Margarita Symonian, very close to the Kremlin, released on the Telegram network a 30-minute recording of a meeting between four top officers of the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, in which the possibility of sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
The leak of information comes at a sensitive time when the debate over sending the Taurus to Ukraine dominates current affairs in Germany. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has already shown opposition to the idea as he considers that it is not possible to supply this type of missiles without the involvement of the German military, risking direct German participation in the conflict.
However, even within the German Executive there are those who disagree with this position, such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Annalena Baerbock, who said this Monday that the Government should “intensively consider” sending German missiles to Ukraine.
At the meeting, officials discussed how German-made missile systems could be used to destroy a bridge “in the East” that is being identified as the Kerch Bridge, which connects Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Moscow a decade ago. According to the German military, it would be possible to destroy the infrastructure, but between ten and 20 missiles would be needed.
During the conversation, the presence of “some” British military personnel on the ground in Ukraine is also mentioned, deployed to support Ukrainian forces operating the Storm Shadow long-range missiles, sent by the United Kingdom.
The meeting took place in mid-January and, according to the German press, served to prepare a meeting between the Luftwaffe commander, Ingo Gerhartz, and the Minister of Defense. The officers spoke through the Webex platform, considered insecure and vulnerable to interception.
The German Government will launch an investigation to determine whether there was negligence in the way the meeting was conducted. On Saturday, Scholz called the incident “very serious.”
The immediate objective is to understand whether there have been other leaks of confidential military information into Russian hands. The Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU’s twin party in Bavaria, is considering asking for the opening of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the case.
This Monday, the Kremlin accused Germany of planning to attack Russian territory. “The recordings show that within the Bundeswehr plans to launch attacks against Russian territory are being discussed in a concrete and substantive way,” said presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov.
The official also said that the content of the discussions published “underlines the direct involvement of the collective Western countries in the conflict in Ukraine”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the German ambassador in Moscow, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, to ask him for explanations.