Germany’s Defence Ministry on Saturday confirmed the authenticity of a recording of a confidential discussion between high-ranking Bundeswehr officers regarding the war in Ukraine that was leaked by Russian state media.
“According to our assessment, 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,” a spokeswoman for the ministry said.
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 audioÂ
As aired by Simonyan on Telegram, 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.
The full version of the article can be read on the Deutsche Welle website.
