Germany blames military recording leak on one participant’s error leading to Russian intercept
Germany defence minister Boris Pistorius
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, on Tuesday (Mar 5) said that one high-level military officer used an unsecured phone line during a call about the ongoing war in Ukraine, which Russia intercepted and leaked to the public. He also dismissed concerns about German communications systems being compromised.
‘Individual’s operational mistake’
In an incident which has caused an outcry and massive embarrassment for Germany, Russian media, last week released a 38-minute audio recording of a discussion among four senior German air force officials discussing how and if Ukraine could use Taurus long-range cruise missiles against invading Russian forces.
WATCH |Germany probes military security leak after Russia wiretap
“Our communication systems have not been compromised,” Pistorius told reporters in Berlin speaking about the initial results of an ongoing investigation into the wiretap incident.
He added, “The reason the air force call could nonetheless be recorded was because of an individual’s operational mistake.”
Pistorius said that one of the participants had accidentally joined the official meeting from a non-secure line which had likely been intercepted by chance by Russia via its widespread surveillance.
One of the four participants joined the meeting held on the Webex platform from a hotel in Singapore, as the city-state at the time, was hosting an air show which saw the participation of many high-ranking military officials from across the world.
The German defence minister also noted that the use of Webex for calls up to a certain security grade was authorised. The version of Webex is not some off-the-shelf software, said Pistorius, but a specially certified one with servers in the Bundeswehr’s computing centres in Germany.
About the wiretap
In the audio recording, posted on Russian social media by a state-backed journalist and head of Russia Today (RT) channel, Margarita Simonyan, German Air Force Chief Ingo Gerhartz was purportedly heard discussing possible delivery of Taurus missiles to Kyiv with three high-ranking Luftwaffe officials.
The German officials also discussed the training of Ukrainian soldiers and potential military targets for the cruise missiles including the Crimea bridge – which links occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland.
On Tuesday, the German defence minister said Russia had leaked the call in a bid to create divisions in Berlin and between the country and its allies.
This comes as the leaked discussion about possibly delivering Taurus cruise missiles to Kyiv which Chancellor Olaf Scholz has publicly rejected, fuelled a public debate.
When asked if the leak would affect Gerhartz’s position, Pistorius said if nothing emerged from the probe then “I am not going to sacrifice one of my best officers to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s games”.
The German defence minister also said that Berlin would take measures so that such an incident would not happen again.
(With inputs from agencies)