What German generals said about Taurus missiles for Ukraine and how Russia could intercept their conversation

The German Deence Ministry has acknowledged that a conversation of its Air Force leadership (on the possible delivery and using Taurus missiles in Ukraine, including strikes on the Kerch Bridge) indeed happened and was intercepted by the Russians. Although they did not rule out that some amendments could have been made to the recording and its decryption. These news shocked the German society, making consider the reliability of protecting confidential information, as it became evident that the enemy is listening to conversations that should not be heard.

Read more about the leak and its possible consequences in the article by Khrystyna Bondarieva, a European Pravda journalist - Taurus for Crimean Bridge: details of scandal with leaked conversation of German generals. On Friday morning, Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan announced on her Telegram channel a publication of an audio recording she allegedly received from "comrades in uniform." "In this interesting recording, high-ranking Bundeswehr officers discuss how they will bomb (attention!) the Crimean bridge.

And how to do it more skillfully, so that at the same time Scholz can keep saying that his nerves are on the edge," the propagandist wrote. Later, she posted a decryption of the presumably classified conversation of Bundeswehr officers, and later the 38-minute audio recording itself, announced by her. It is about one but lengthy conversation involving, as claimed, four high-ranking German military officials.

The German press soon clarified, citing its sources, that the negotiations took place not on a secure communication line, but through the WebEx video conferencing platform. It is a kind of Zoom analogue but without Chinese "ancestry." So WebEx is widely used by Bunderswehr. One of its participants, Frank Grefe, was in a hotel room in Singapore during the converstation, It is not ruled out that it was decisive in compromising the negotiations.

Later, the Defence Ministry officially acknowledged the fact of the conversation. "We cannot currently say with certainty whether changes have been made to the recorded or written version that is circulating on social media," said the spokeswoman for the German Defence Ministry on Saturday. Given the recording, the purpose of the negotiations was to prepare a brief report for Defence Minister Boris Pistorius on the possible use of Taurus missiles in Ukraine; assess the main problems and risks; clarify the need for German military participation in future operations.

The latter Scholz's explanation is presented as a public "argument" against sending the missiles to Ukraine. The German Air Force chief, Ingo Gerhartz, does not rule out that the chancellor will still greenlight them. A significant part of the conversation is devoted to analysing and discussing "what consequences this may lead to."

One of the topics is potential targets for missiles and their quantity to be provided to Ukraine. For example, two batches of 50 missiles may be an option. At the same time, Germany does not intend to send all 600 Taurus missiles it has in service.

And Crimea is no mentioned in the conversation, but it is no secret that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are hoping for Taurus missiles precisely to destroy the Crimean bridges, primarily the one across the Kerch Strait. Mentions by the Bundeswehr about the scale of the bridge indirectly confirm that it is about it, just with the wrong name. Roderich Kiesewetter, a Bundestag MP from the opposition CDU and an expert on defence issues, is convinced that the conversation was deliberately leaked now to prevent the delivery of Taurus.

And besides, it is obvious that Russia seeks to bring even more turbulence and confusion into the already intense debates about the missiles. The consequences of the publication though may turn out to be the opposite of the intended purpose. Florian Hahn, a representative of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group on defence policy, emphasises that the Air Force leadership allegedly clearly concluded in the leaked conversation that Ukraine could use Taurus without Germany's involvement.

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