©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A soldier works on a tank, the day German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and German President Frank Walter Steinmeier visit a training site where Ukrainian soldiers undergo maintenance training on Leopard 1 A5 tanks , at the German army Bu
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany said on Saturday it was investigating an apparent intercept of a call, after Moscow said a recording of German officials showed them discussing weapons for Ukraine and a potential attack on Kiev on a bridge in Crimea.
A spokesperson for the German Defense Ministry said Saturday that the Federal Office for Military Counterintelligence was investigating what appeared to be a case of eavesdropping and that it was possible that the recording had been altered.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, visiting Rome, called the potential leak “very serious” and said it “will now be clarified very carefully, very intensively and very quickly.”
Margarita Simonyan, a journalist for Russian state television and head of Russia Today, posted the audio on her Telegram channel and said it revealed German officers “discussing how to strike the Crimean bridge,” which connects Russia to the Ukrainian peninsula seized and annexed. in 2014.
Reuters listened to the 38-minute recording but could not independently confirm its authenticity.
Participants on the call discuss the possible delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Kiev, which Scholz has so far publicly firmly rejected. There is also talk of the training of Ukrainian soldiers and possible military objectives.
Scholz, speaking on a visit to Rome, told reporters that the potential leak was “very serious.”
“That’s why the issue is now being clarified very carefully, very intensively and very quickly. This is also necessary,” he said.
The Russian embassy in Berlin did not respond to an emailed request for comment Saturday on the allegations of possible espionage. A spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry said on social media Friday: “We demand explanations from Germany,” but did not specify his particular concerns.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Saturday about “the cunning plans of the Bundeswehr (the German armed forces), which became evident thanks to the publication of this audio recording. This is a blatant self-denunciation,” Lavrov said.
Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of the German parliament, told the Handelsblatt newspaper that he believed the reports were authentic.
“Russia obviously shows how heavily it uses espionage and sabotage in the context of hybrid warfare. It is to be expected that much more has been intercepted and leaked to influence decisions, discredit and manipulate people,” he said.