German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday promised a full investigation after what gave the impression to be a recording of confidential military talks on the Ukraine conflict was posted on Russian social media, in a probably enormous embarrassment for Berlin.
The head of Russia’s state-backed RT channel, Margarita Simonyan, on Friday posted the 38-minute audio recording of what she claimed have been German military officers on February 19 discussing potential strikes on Crimea.
“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 stated on a go to to Rome.
In the recording, discussions will be heard on the potential use by Ukrainian forces of German-made Taurus missiles and their potential affect.
Topics embody aiming the missiles at targets corresponding 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 using missiles supplied to Kyiv by France and Britain.
A German defence ministry spokeswoman confimed to AFP that the ministry believes a dialog within the air pressure 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 stated.
Experts consulted by Der Spiegel journal stated they believed the recording was genuine.
Kyiv has lengthy been clamouring for Germany to supply it with Taurus missiles, which may attain targets as much as 500 kilometres (about 300 miles) away.
Scholz has to date refused to ship the missiles, fearing that it might result in an escalation of the battle.
“If this story turns out to be true, it would be a highly problematic event,” Green occasion politician Konstantin von Notz advised the RND broadcaster.
“The question arises as to whether this is a one-off incident or a structural safety problem,” he added.
Speaking at a diplomatic discussion board in Turkey on Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated the recording signifies 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 stated.
“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 and the overseas ministry, wrote in a Telegram publish.
The acquisition of German Taurus missiles would offer an enormous enhance for Ukraine as Kyiv struggles to fend off Russia’s invasion.
France and Britain have equipped Kyiv with SCALP or Storm Shadow missiles, each of which have a spread of about 250 kilometres.
But Scholz stated final week that Germany couldn’t justify matching British and French strikes in sending long-range missiles to Ukraine and supporting the weapon system’s deployment.
“This is a very long-range weapon, and what the British and French are doing in terms of targeting and supporting targeting cannot be done in Germany,” Scholz stated, with out specifying precisely what he meant.
Britain denied that it had any direct involvement in working the missiles.
“Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadow and its targeting processes are the business of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” a Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesperson stated in a press release to AFP.
Roderich Kiesewetter, from Germany’s opposition conservatives, warned that additional recordings can also be leaked.
“A number of other conversations will certainly have been intercepted and may be leaked at a later date for Russia’s benefit,” he advised broadcaster ZDF.
It will be assumed “that the conversation was deliberately leaked by Russia at this point in time with a specific intention”, particularly “to prevent Taurus delivery by Germany”, he stated.
According to Der Spiegel, the videoconference was held not on a secret inside military community however on the WebEx platform.
Source: www.anews.com.tr