German authorities have promised a probe after a secret army recording on the Ukraine warfare discovered its method into Russian social media.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised Saturday a full investigation after the audio got here as an enormous embarrassment for Berlin.
A German Defense Ministry spokeswoman confirmed to AFP that the ministry believed a dialog within the air power division was “intercepted.”
“We are currently unable to say for certain whether changes were made to the recorded or transcribed version that is circulating on social media,” the spokeswoman mentioned.
The head of Russia’s state-backed RT channel, Margarita Simonyan, posted Friday the 38-minute audio recording of what she claimed had been German military officers discussing potential strikes on Crimea in a Feb. 19 videoconference.
In the recording, discussions might be heard on the potential use by Ukrainian forces of German-made Taurus missiles and their potential affect.
Topics included aiming the missiles at targets akin to a key bridge over the Kerch strait linking the Russian mainland to Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
The discussions additionally cowl the usage of missiles offered to Kyiv by France and Britain.
Kyiv has lengthy been calling on Germany to supply it with Taurus missiles, which may attain targets as much as 500 kilometers (300 miles) away.
‘Sworn enemies’
Scholz has thus far refused to ship the missiles, anxious that it might result in an escalation of the battle.
“What is being reported is a very serious matter and that is why it is now being investigated very carefully, very intensively and very quickly,” Scholz mentioned throughout a go to to Rome on Saturday.
Germany’s ARD broadcaster described the leak as a “catastrophe” for the German secret companies.
According to Der Spiegel journal, the videoconference was held on the WebEx platform, and never on a secret inner military community.
“If this story turns out to be true, it would be a highly problematic event,” Green celebration politician Konstantin von Notz advised the RND broadcaster.
Speaking at a diplomatic discussion board in Türkiye on Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov mentioned the recording indicated that Ukraine and its backers “do not want to change their course at all, and want to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield.”
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova demanded that Germany “promptly” present explanations for the dialogue.
“Attempts to avoid answering the questions will be regarded as an admission of guilt,” she mentioned.
“Our age-old rivals – the Germans – have again turned into our sworn enemies,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of the Security Council, wrote in a Telegram publish.
Source: www.dailysabah.com