The Kremlin announced on Monday, March 4, 2024, that a supposed recording of German military discussions revealed that Germany’s armed forces were discussing plans to launch strikes on Russian territory.
Kremlin Spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov said, “The recording itself says that within the Bundeswehr, plans to launch strikes on Russian territory are being discussed substantively and concretely.”
“This does not require any legal interpretation. Everything here is more than obvious,” Peskov added.
“Here we have to find out whether the Bundeswehr is doing this on its own initiative. Then the question is: how controllable is the Bundeswehr and how much does Scholz control the situation? Or is it part of German government policy?
“Both (scenarios) are very bad. Both once again emphasise the direct involvement of the countries of the collective west in the conflict around Ukraine.”
Dmitry Peskov
Peskov’s statement follows after Russian media on Friday, March 1, 2024, published a 38-minute recording of a call in which German officers were heard discussing weapons for Ukraine and a potential strike by Kyiv on a bridge in Crimea.
Germany called it an apparent act of eavesdropping and said that it was carrying out investigations.
In the telephone conference, four officers, including the Head of Germany’s air force, Ingo Gerhartz, prepare for a discussion with German Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius about the possible deployment of Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
They came to the conclusion that a speedy delivery and the use of the missiles in the immediate future would only be possible if German soldiers were involved.
Taurus training for Ukrainian soldiers in order to avoid putting German soldiers on Ukraine soil, was a possibility, but would take months of preparation.
The officers also discussed the possibility of using the missiles to destroy the Russian-built bridge connecting the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula and Russia.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, ruled out the sending of Taurus missiles last week because he said that the operation would involve sending German troops to Ukraine.
He said, “German soldiers can at no point and in no place be linked with the targets that this (Taurus) system reaches. Not even in Germany.”
After Peskov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, asserted that the leaked discussions showed that the appetite for war in Europe “still remains very very high” and the aim was to ensure “Russia’s strategic defeat on the battlefield.”
Former Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev also commented that Germany “is planning a war with Russia.”
It was reported that Germany’s Ambassador to Moscow was summoned to the Russian foreign ministry on Monday in order to explain the leaked discussion between senior military personnel about sending weapons to Ukraine.
Per the reports on Russian news agencies, Alexander Graf Lamsdorff arrived at the foreign ministry without responding to journalists’ requests for comment.
Russia’s Statements Dismissed
Germany’s Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, dismissed Russia’s reactions as “completely absurd,” accusing Moscow of wanting to sow distrust and discord in Germany.
He also accused Russia of waging “an information war” against Germany, by intercepting and then leaking a sensitive meeting among high-level military officers of the German military or Bundeswehr.
As the German government struggles to deal with the fallout from the leak, with questions asked about the security of its internal communications and speculation over what other discussions Russia has been able to listen in on, defence policy experts said the intercepted communication was clearly meant to undermine Germany’s Ukraine strategy.
Roderich Kiesewette, the opposition Christian Democrats’ defence expert, claimed that Russia had leaked the meeting at this moment in time in order to specifically “undermine a German Taurus delivery.”
He suggested that the leak was carried out “in order to divert public conversation away” from other issues, including the death of Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny.
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