Germany has accused Russia of spying on its army in an "information war" promoted by Vladimir Putin, after the broadcast of the audio of a video conference conversation between the military of the Russian state media RT German Air Force in which they raised possible scenarios of the war in Ukraine.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Sunday that the issue goes beyond espionage per se. "There is no doubt that it is part of an information war waged by Putin; is a hybrid disinformation attack. It is about division; it is about undermining our determination and we must respond with special caution, but no less determination," said the minister.
By releasing the audio, Russia is making it clear to Western public opinion that it has the ability to listen in on allies' conversations. The issue is uncomfortable for the German army and government.
The Ministry of Defense confirmed that the conversation between four senior leaders of the Luftwaffe (Air Force) indeed took place. It has also opened an investigation into how that security breach in communications could have occurred, to determine whether the channel that the military used for the meeting – the WebEx videoconferencing platform – was appropriate, and why they did not use the Air Force's highly secure internal network. According to the magazine Der Spiegel, one of the soldiers participated from his room in a hotel in Singapore, where – the magazine suggests – there could have been hidden microphones.
In the 38-minute audio, the military discusses the technical and political implications of a potential shipment of Taurus missiles to Ukraine – Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reiterated several times that Germany will not supply Kyiv with this class of long-range missiles – and they speculate about possible Russian targets that the Ukrainian military might attack with that weaponry. At one point, the head of the Air Force, Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz, and Brigadier General Frank Gräfe discuss whether the missiles could reach “the bridge,” presumably referring to the Kerch Bridge, key infrastructure linking Crimea – illegally annexed by Russia ten years ago now – with Russia.
The Kremlin assured yesterday that it had summoned the German ambassador to Moscow, Alexander Lambsdorff, who indeed went to the headquarters of the Russian Foreign Ministry yesterday morning, surrounded by a swarm of journalists. He was there for an hour. Berlin denied that its ambassador had been summoned, and a spokesman for German diplomacy claimed that the appointment "to the Russian Foreign Ministry had been planned for a long time".
As Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov stated yesterday in his daily telephone press conference, the German military's conversation "demonstrates the direct involvement of the countries of the so-called collective West in the conflict surrounding Ukraine". On Sunday, the German minister Pistorius had urged "not to fall into Moscow's trap", which aims to build and reinforce the narrative that the West is at war with Russia, when, in reality, "the West is limited to supporting Ukraine in the legitimate war of self-defense".
Pistorius also defended the content of the conversation. “The officers did what is their job; they reflected on possible scenarios, without considering anything in any way", said the minister. At the meeting, the senior leaders mention that the Government has not given the go-ahead to the deployment of Taurus missiles in Ukraine, and "they make it clear all the time that the line of participation in the war, which has different forms, has not been to surpass", insisted Pistorius.
