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Last week, a recording of German Air Force officers was published by a Russian broadcaster, prompting fears that military communications had been compromised by Russian hackers.
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However, the German Defence Minister has ruled that out, admitting that the leak was caused by an “application error”.
“The communication system is not compromised,” said Defence Minister Boris Pistorius at a 5 March press conference. “The fact that the conversation could be intercepted within the Air Force was an application error.”
According to German news site Der Speigel, the conversation was held over Cisco’s Webex platform.
The recording was originally posted to Telegram by Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russian state broadcaster RT. In it, Luftwaffe Chief Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz (pictured above) can be heard discussing with other officers whether or not a Taurus cruise missile could destroy a bridge between Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea.
The officers also discussed how to supply targeting data to the Ukrainian military without becoming directly involved in the fighting.
“The bridge in the east is hard to hit; it’s a rather small target but Taurus can do it, can also hit the ammunition depots,” one of the officers can be heard saying.
The day after the conversation was leaked, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz referred to the incident as a “very serious matter”.
“It will now be investigated very carefully, very intensively, and very quickly,” Scholz said.
When sharing the leak, Simonyan referred to the German invasion of Russia during World War II.
“Is this a high time for Russia to actively remind Germany how the blowing up of Russian bridges ended for Germany last time?” Simonyan said, according to Al Jazeera.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry also warned of the consequences of Germany providing closer assistance to Ukraine.
“If nothing is done, and the German people do not stop this, then there will be dire consequences first and foremost for Germany itself,” a ministry spokesman said.
