German Defence Ministry confirms that its Air Force officers' conversation was intercepted

Saturday, 2 March 2024, 17:46

Germany's Defence Ministry has reported that an internal conversation between German Air Force officers has been intercepted.

Source: German news channel n-tv, as reported by European Pravda

Details: "We believe that a conversation [between] Air Force [officers] has been intercepted. We currently can't say for sure whether the recorded or written version that is being circulated on social media has been altered," a ministry spokeswoman told dpa in Berlin.

This was also reported earlier by Berlin's ARD studio.

Background:

  • The Federal Ministry of Defence of Germany has reportedly initiated an investigation into whether conversations of representatives of its air force – who, according to Russian propaganda, allegedly discussed blowing up the Crimean Bridge with Taurus missiles – were intercepted.
  • An online conference call of senior Air Force officers, possibly intercepted by the Russians on 19 February, concerned the preparation of a 30-minute briefing for Germany's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius on the possibility of a mission involving Taurus long-range missiles in Ukraine. The officers openly mentioned, among other things, that US and UK troops were operating in Ukraine and discussed the possibility of training Ukrainian personnel in Germany for the Taurus mission.
  • Afterwards, a range of German politicians called for the situation with possible bugging and espionage in the Bundeswehr to be clarified.
  • This week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz once again ruled out sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine, claiming that this would mean that Germany would become a party to the war against Russia.
  • Chancellor added that Germany could not give Ukraine weapons with a range of 500 km, which, "in case of incorrect usage, could hit a certain target somewhere in Moscow".

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