Russia claims German generals discussed blowing up Crimean bridge: Berlin to investigate

The Federal Ministry of Defence of Germany has initiated an investigation into whether the conversations of representatives of its air force – who, according to Russian propaganda, allegedly discussed blowing up the Crimean bridge with Taurus missiles – were intercepted.

Source: German Defence Ministry, in a comment to DPA, European Pravda reports

A German Defense Ministry official said that the Federal Military Counterintelligence Service (BAMAD) had "initiated all necessary measures" to investigate the incident.

The incident is related to the post by Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan of an alleged conversation between several German air force generals discussing how to deploy Taurus missiles and hit the Crimean bridge.

Russian propaganda was very "stirred up" by this story and actively searched for details about the generals, whom it managed to identify on the recording of unknown origin.

Read also: Bloomberg: the UK pressures Germany to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that the German government should explain the comments on the recording of unclear origin, otherwise she would consider Berlin to be "admitting guilt".

Notably, 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.

Background:

• This week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz once again ruled out sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine, stating that doing so would mean Germany would become a party to the war with Russia.
• He said that Germany could not give Ukraine "a weapon with a range of 500 km, which, in case of incorrect usage, could hit a certain target somewhere in Moscow".
• Scholz's previous claims that the use of long-range weapons implies the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine to "target missiles" sparked criticism from the UK

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