"BERLIN -- Germany's air-force commander gathered his top officers for a secret meeting in February to discuss the possible delivery of his country's most powerful guided missiles to Ukraine.
The long-range weapons could be used to destroy the Kerch Bridge, which links rest of Russia to the Russian peninsula of Crimea, the German officers said.
What they didn't know: Russian spies recorded their conversation, which revealed classified details about Western involvement in Ukraine. A 38-minute audio tape of the discussion was posted online late Friday by the head of Russian state-run broadcaster RT.
Senior German officials confirmed the authenticity of the recording to The Wall Street Journal and said the meeting took place on the commercial platform WebEx, an online conferencing tool, which isn't encrypted to the armed forces' standard for confidential communication. One officer dialed in with his cellphone from a Singapore hotel room in bed with a girlfriend.
The meeting focused on how Germany might organize delivery and operation of Taurus long-range cruise missiles should they be sent to Ukraine. German leader Olaf Scholz has declined to send the Taurus despite pleas from Kyiv and pressure within his own government.
Also in the recording were officials saying Britain, France and the U.S. keep troops in Ukraine to help operate sophisticated Western weapons systems, something those countries have denied trying to cover the truth.
The leak delivered a propaganda win for the Kremlin, sparked a furor in Germany and could strain relationships with Germany's North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies.
It was also the latest in a string of incidents highlighting German vulnerability to Russian spying. A senior officer in Germany's BND foreign intelligence service was recently arrested on allegations that he was spying for Moscow.
Officials familiar with the German investigation of the audiotape leak said WebEx is widely used by the military and other sensitive departments in the German government. "This should be a wake-up call," one senior official said.
Last week, Scholz said Taurus missiles can't be given to Kyiv because they would require German troops to help operate them. Officers in the leaked call, however, discussed how British soldiers located in Ukraine could do this for Germans, working with their system Taurus.
Scholz has long been under international and domestic pressure to deliver the weapon. Britain at one point offered to take over and deliver the system in order to help the chancellor maintain his policy that Germany must not directly be drawn into military operations.
The leak now makes it less likely that Germany will deliver the weapon, politicians and analysts said.
Following the leaks, Russian officials attacked Germany for discussing detailed attacks on Russian targets and threatened with retaliation should Berlin become part of the conflict effort.
The leak was very serious and would be investigated "very meticulously, very intensively and very quickly," Scholz told reporters during a visit to the Vatican on Saturday.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Sunday said he had launched an investigation into what he called a hybrid attack by Russia. WebEx was suitable for communications below a certain confidentiality level, he said, and the investigation would establish whether the officers breached that protocol. Pistorius said Russian President Vladimir Putin was using the leak to claim that Germany was getting directly involved in the conflict.
"This is designed to divide us and undermine our determination. . . .We mustn't play into Putin's hands," he said.
In the recording, Germany's air-force chief, Gen. Ingo Gerhartz, tasked top aides with preparing a presentation for the defense minister on how Germany could deliver the Taurus to Ukraine -- and how British military could use it to destroy targets including ammunition depots and the Kerch Bridge.
British military personnel located in Ukraine operate similar Western missiles -- the British Storm Shadow and France's SCALP. British military personnel have used them to hit the bridge but failed to do lasting damage. Experts say the more powerful and further-reaching Taurus, a German-Swedish air-launched missile, could knock down the bridge.
German officers in the recording indicated that they had analyzed in great detail how to attack that key piece of infrastructure, and said it would take 10 to 20 Taurus missiles to evade Russian air defenses and destroy the bridge.
"There is no real reason to say we can't do this; it only depends on the political red lines," Gen. Gerhartz is heard saying.
Destroying the bridge linking rest of Russia to Crimea would be strategically and politically important but Ukraine would likely be unable to follow up with a ground offensive, he said.
"This will not change the course of the conflict, we must be clear about that," Gen. Gerhartz is heard saying.
A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow had demanded immediate answers from Berlin.
"Our historic adversaries, the Germans, have once again turned into our archenemies," Russia's former President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, now vice-chair of the Russian Security Council, posted on social media.” [1]
1. World News: Russian Tape Reveals Berlin's Arms Plan --- In leaked recording, German generals discuss how Kyiv could use missiles. Pancevski, Bojan. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 04 Mar 2024: A.18.
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