Ministry
Were Air Force communications intercepted?
Boris Pistorius (SPD) is Federal Minister of Defense. photo
© Daniel Löb/dpa
Russian media reports that the Bundeswehr’s conversation may have been intercepted. The Ministry of Defense takes the allegations seriously.
Following allegations from Moscow, the German Ministry of Defense is examining whether communications in the area of Luftwaffe was intercepted. “The Federal Office for the Military Counterintelligence Service (BAMAD) has initiated all necessary measures,” said a spokeswoman for the ministry in response to a request from the German Press Agency.
Russian media had previously reported on a possible wiretapped conversation. Bundeswehr officers can be heard discussing the theoretical possibilities of using German Taurus missiles.
The Russian Foreign Ministry demanded an explanation from the federal government after the allegedly intercepted conversation between senior Bundeswehr officers. “Attempts to avoid answers will be seen as an admission of guilt,” wrote Moscow Foreign Office spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on her Telegram channel. At the same time, Margarita Simonyan, the head of the Russian state broadcaster RT, published an audio recording of the approximately 30-minute conversation. She did not say how Simonjan got the recordings.
The recording will, among other things, address the question of whether Taurus rockets would theoretically be technically capable of destroying the bridge built by Russia to the Crimean peninsula. Another point in the discussion is whether Ukraine could carry out the shelling without the participation of the Bundeswehr. However, it can also be heard in the recording that there is no green light for the operation at the political level.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has emphasized several times that he is against the delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine. He justified this with the danger that Germany could be drawn into the war of aggression started by Russia.