(CNN) — Germany’s foreign intelligence service told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that it had intercepted radio communications where Russian soldiers were talking regarding shooting soldiers and civilians in Ukraine, a source with knowledge of the meeting said.
The briefing was the main topic at Wednesday’s meeting, the source added.
Those intelligence findings, first reported by Der Spiegelappear to implicate Russian troops in a pattern of apparent war crimes despite denials from Moscow, most recently in the indiscriminate killing of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.
Der Spiegel reported that the BND, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, intercepted Russian radio talk regarding the killing of civilians in Bucha, and that some of the talk might be directly linked to specific killings in Bucha that have been documented since the investigations surfaced. news of an apparent massacre there.
German intelligence has satellite images that point to the involvement of Russian troops in the Bucha murders, the Washington Post reportedciting an unnamed intelligence official, although the newspaper said the radio transmissions have not been linked to that location.
News of the German intelligence assessment comes amid the Massive international outrage over Bucha and a growing body of evidence pointing to the involvement of the Russian military in the indiscriminate killing of civilians in Ukraine.
A drone video taken before March 10 captured the moment a cyclist is shot dead on a street in Bucha by Russian soldiers. The international media have released extensive images of that same street, where the bodies of at least 20 civilian men were found following the departure of Russian forces from the area.
Germany’s foreign intelligence office declined to comment, and a German government spokesman declined to comment on the Der Spiegel report.
The German interceptions are not the first audio evidence indicating that Russian troops have engaged in the killing of civilians.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian Security Service released a series of intercepted audio recordings purporting to reveal that Russians are given orders to kill civilians.
In one of the alleged interceptions, a soldier identifies what he describes as a car carrying two civilians.
“Damn it, kill them all, for God’s sake!” comes the reply.
