German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius publicly voiced his opinion regarding the Kremlin's publication of intercepted telephone conversations of German officers, in which they discussed the possible supply of Taurus missiles to Ukraine and an attack on the Crimean bridge.
This is a hybrid attack by Russia — Pistorius
Pistorius said that the Russian dictator is waging an "information war" against Germany. According to the Minister of Defense, this is a "hybrid attack" of Russia, the purpose of which is to "undermine the resolve".
This is reported by Bild .
Pistorius also said that he immediately ordered a "full" investigation into the incident to determine the authority of the officers and the correctness of the choice of means of communication, the WebEx platform.
The Minister of Defense of Germany urged not to be "tricked by Putin" and to consider what happened in a wider context: it is not by chance that Russia released the recording at the end of a week that was full of critical events for the Kremlin.
We cannot allow Putin to "separate us"... The violent reaction now is exactly what the Russian dictator wants to achieve.
Boris Pistorius
Minister of Defense of Germany
The Minister of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany stated that, apart from the published recording of the conversation between Bundeswehr officers, he is currently unaware of any other information leaks. He expects that the first results of the verification in connection with the publication of the conversation of the military will be at the beginning of next week.
Pistorius also noted that in the published recording, the officers discussed various scenarios, and this does not mean a "green light" for the transfer of Taurus missiles to Kyiv.
The "merged" conversation of German officers: what is known
On March 1, the Russian mass media distributed a recording of a conversation between the German military, during which, in particular, they discussed the possibility of Taurus missile strikes on the Crimean bridge with the help of a Dassault Rafale fighter.
According to Putin's henchman, propagandist Margarita Simonyan, the conversation between the German generals took place on February 19, 2024.
The head of the Operations and Training Department of the Air Force Command Grefe, Air Force Inspector Gerhartz, and employees of the Fensk and Froshtedt Air Operations Center allegedly took part in the said negotiations.
In addition, Margarita Simonyan assures that one of the officers mentioned a planned trip to Ukraine on February 21 "to coordinate strikes on Russian targets."
I would like to say something more about the destruction of the bridge. We actively dealt with this issue and, unfortunately, came to the conclusion that the bridge is similar to a runway due to its size. Therefore (for destruction — ed.) it may not take 10 or even 20 missiles, one of the German generals allegedly stated during the discussion.
The secret service of the Bundeswehr, MAD, began an investigation into the incident. As the media wrote, during the meeting, German officers were very careless, because they used the WebEx platform, which is easy to listen to.
Subsequently, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed the authenticity of the "fused" conversation of German officers about Ukraine. He called the audio recording of the wiretapping of German officers, which was published by Russian propagandists, a "serious leak", calling this incident a "big problem".
