Germany has accused Russia of leaking an intercepted call between German military officials on how to support Ukraine in the war and trying to divide Europe.
Russian media published an audio recording last week of senior German military officials, held on Webex, during which they discussed the possible delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Kyiv and potential targets, according to Reuters.
Germany has confirmed the authenticity of the call and has launched an investigation into what it called an act of eavesdropping by Russia.
In the call, German Air Force Chief Ingo Gerhartz spoke with three high-ranking Luftwaffe officials on the possible delivery of the missiles, an act that Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected.
They also spoke of training Ukrainian soldiers, possible targets for the missiles including the bridge between the Russian mainland and Crimea as well as Russian depots, and details of allies’ operations in the region such as British personnel being deployed in Ukraine and how Britain's Storm Shadow and France's Scalp missiles were deployed in the country.
One of the officials spoke on how Britain " is already handling for France the satellite data needed for Ukraine to program the missiles," Reuters reported. The official suggested that Britain could do the same for Germany, which would prevent the country from being involved in their deployment.
"This hybrid attack aimed to generate insecurity and divide us," a government spokesman said on Monday. "And that is exactly what we will not allow. We are in constant contact with our partners."
Tobias Ellwood, former chair of the parliamentary defense committee in Britain, said that Russia most likely did not learn anything it didn’t already know in the leak, given its spying operations.
"That doesn't prevent some serious conversations taking place in the diplomatic corridors between Germany and Britain and indeed NATO, as well as to why this happened in the first place," he added.
"It is a wake-up call that we are being targeted by (Russian President) Putin," Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Monday.
The Kremlin raised concerns over whether Scholz was in control of the situation.
"The recording itself says that within the Bundeswehr, plans to launch strikes on Russian territory are being discussed substantively and concretely," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"Here we have to find out whether the Bundeswehr is doing this on its own initiative. Then the question is: how controllable is the Bundeswehr and how much does Scholz control the situation?" Peskov said.
He said both scenarios were "very bad. Both once again emphasise the direct involvement of the countries of the collective West in the conflict around Ukraine".
According to EFE, Russian state-run agency RIA Novosti reported that "The German ambassador arrived at the Russian Foreign Ministry, where he was summoned in connection with the publicized conversation of German officers about Crimea."
