According to the UK’s Daily Telegraph, Putin’s Kremlin intercepted a call using off-the-shelf video phone technology in one of Berlin’s worst security breaches since the Cold War.
The recording is 38 minutes long – the Ministry of Defense has now confirmed to the ARD Capital Studio that there is a case of wiretapping, German publication tagesschau reported. The problem occurred when a participant dialed in from a hotel phone making interception a breeze.
The conversation is believed to have been about the preparation of a 30-minute briefing for Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) on the feasibility of a “Taurus” mission in Ukraine. The Taurus is a Swedish-German air-launched cruise missile comparable to the UK’s Storm Shadow.
Equipped with stealth technology that makes them less visible to detection, the missiles have a range of up to 500 kilometres, which would help Ukraine put pressure on Russia in the Black Sea and elsewhere. Taurus is shorthand for Target Adaptive Unitary and dispenser Robotic Ubiquity System and in Latin, taurus means “bull”.
Chief of the German Air Force says US military personnel already on the ground in Ukraine are available to help Ukrainians operate their German-provided Taurus missiles to strike Russia pic.twitter.com/hG8eZJ4dEe
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) March 3, 2024
The officers appear to openly chat about various topics, including the presence of US and UK military personnel on Ukrainian soil.
According to RT:
The 38-minute-long recording, reportedly from February 19, contained a conversation between four officers of the German Air Force, including its commander, Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz. They were discussing operational and targeting details of Taurus long-range missiles which Berlin was considering supplying to Kiev. The officers particularly explored the option of the missiles being used against the Crimean Bridge and spoke about maintaining plausible deniability in the event of such an attack.
Gen. Gerhartz of the German Air Force apparently confirmed in this conversation that British troops are present on the ground in Ukraine. The leaked audio, first appearing on Russia’s RT last Friday and obtained by RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, has been confirmed as authentic by Berlin.
However, Germany claims that this is part of a Kremlin plot to destabilize the country. Any claims stating that the recording proves Germany is getting ready for a war with Russia are nothing but “absurd, infamous Russian propaganda,” the government’s deputy spokesman, Wolfgang Buechner, told journalists at a press conference in Berlin on Monday. He also maintained that these conclusions could “in no way” be drawn from the officers’ conversation.
On Sunday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius stated that Vladimir Putin is using the recording to “destabilize” Germany and create divisions through an “information war.” In the call, Luftwaffe air force Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz mentioned the potential delivery of German Taurus missiles, which have a longer range and greater precision than Storm Shadows.
“If we’re asked about delivery methods. I know how the British do this,” said Gerhartz. “They do it completely in reach-back [military term indicating close collaboration with military intelligence, skipping normal protocols]. They have several people on the ground.”
Brigadier General Frank Graefe is thought to have responded that Ukrainian troops were trained on German soil, and that the “right course of action” would be for the UK to “take over” the training.
The German government has dismissed claims that it is preparing for a military confrontation with Russia as “absurd.”