Germany to investigate leaked recording of Luftwaffe generals’ Crimean Bridge attack plan
Germany is set to launch an investigation into how an audio recording of several German generals discussing helping Ukraine attack Russia was leaked.
Russian, English-language news channel Russia Today‘s (RT) Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan first published a transcript of the conversation between senior Luftwaffe officers discussing the matter with a nearly 40-minute audio recording of a potential Berlin operation to bomb the Crimean Bridge.
“We are checking whether communications within the Air Force were intercepted,” a spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defense told the outlet Bild. “We cannot say anything about the content of the intercepted communications.”
According to a separate RT report, the audio clip featured a conversation in German between four people who allegedly hold high-ranking positions within Germany’s armed forces. One of them is supposedly Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, the commander of the national air force. In the conversation, the men were talking about the efficiency of the Franco-British cruise missile, known as Storm Shadow in the U.K. and Scalp in France. Such weapons were previously donated to Kyiv by its Western backers. Berlin’s Federal Office for Military Counterintelligence (BAMAD) has “initiated all necessary measures,” the ministry said.
“If this story turns out to be true, it would be a highly problematic incident,” Konstantin von Notz, the chairman of the Bundestag’s parliamentary oversight committee, told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland news agency.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the German government should explain the comments on the recording of unclear origin, otherwise, she would consider Berlin to be “admitting guilt.” The Russian media leak came at a time when Germany’s discussions about the possible supply of long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine have intensified, a move that the federal government categorically rejects.
Analyst reveals recorded German officers’ discussion was possibly leaked by allies
For Alexander Rahr, a German political analyst and chairman of the Eurasian Society in Berlin, the recording of discussions between high-ranking German military officers could have been leaked by France and the U.K. to take revenge on Scholz for his principled position on not supplying arms to Ukraine. The audio recording, which has been proven authentic by authorities, focuses on risks Germany would face in a direct military conflict with Russia, while the potential of striking the Crimean Bridge took up less time in the conversation.
Rahr was not surprised to learn of the range of issues that were discussed, he told TASS, because they are trying to work out in a private conversation how to accomplish their mission to help Ukraine “defeat Russia” by supplying weapons.
However, he pointed out that the fact that the conversation was leaked is surprising, given that it was conducted by just four people. “Of course, it could be a victory or successful work of the Russian special services, who listened in on this conversation, which cannot be ruled out, but there is another version that I have heard here in Germany. It is that this is a ‘leak’ by the British and French as an act of revenge on Olaf Scholz for clearly saying in recent days that Germany will not interfere or go into a direct conflict with Russia, will not send its inspectors or its instructors to Ukraine to target the Taurus or other German missiles that could strike inside Russian territory,” the analyst said.
He also implicated a conflict in leadership within European nations in the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia. Scholz has put an end to the possibility of any involvement of the German military based on his recent statements. “This, of course, did not go well with the French and the British,” Rahr explained. “All the more so because Olaf Scholz spilled the beans, as they say here, and gave away the secret that the British had sent their missile spotters to Ukraine a long time ago. Both the British and the French took offense at Scholz big time because of this: They say that such secrets should not be given away.”
He added that the infighting inside NATO, because both French President Emmanuel Macron and the British say they are not against sending their people to Ukraine in the event of a further Russian offensive against Kyiv, makes the situation explosive.
Visit WWIII.news to read more updates on the escalating conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the West’s and EU’s involvement.
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