“According to our assessment, a conversation in the Air Force was intercepted. We cannot currently say with certainty whether changes were made to the recorded or written version that is circulating on social media,” said a ministry spokeswoman in Berlin on Saturday.
The ARD capital studio also reported this previously. The head of the Russian state broadcaster RT, Margarita Simonjan, published an audio recording of the approximately 30-minute conversation on Friday. In it, senior Air Force officers can be heard discussing the theoretical possibilities of using German Taurus cruise missiles by Ukraine.
Taurus cruise missile details
The conversation is said to have served to prepare for a briefing for Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. The exchange documented in the audio file concerns, for example, the question of whether Taurus cruise missiles would be technically capable of destroying the bridge built by Russia to the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in violation of international law. Another point is whether Ukraine might carry out the shelling without the participation of the Bundeswehr. It is also regarding the amount that the German Bundeswehr might theoretically give to Ukraine and the length of time any preparations will take. However, it can also be heard in the recording that there is no green light at the political level for the delivery of the cruise missiles demanded by Kiev.
It is also explosive that there is talk of the British having “a few people on site” in connection with the use of their Storm Shadow cruise missiles delivered to Ukraine. There had just been anger in Great Britain over a statement made by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which some interpreted as an indiscretion. “What the British and French are doing in terms of target control and the accompaniment of target control cannot be done in Germany,” said Scholz. He left it open what exactly he meant by that.
British Prime Minister: “Missiles are a matter for Ukraine”
However, the sentence was understood by some as an indication that the French and British would support the control of their Storm Shadow and Scalp cruise missiles, which were delivered to Ukraine, with their own forces. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak denied this: “Ukraine’s use of the Storm Shadow long-range missile system and the target selection process are the responsibility of the Ukrainian armed forces.”
Meanwhile, Scholz promised quick clarification on Saturday evening. On the sidelines of a visit to the Vatican, Scholz spoke of a “very serious matter”. In response to a question regarding possible foreign policy damage, he said: “That is why this is now being investigated very carefully, very intensively and very quickly. That is also necessary.”
