German military leak claims British soldiers ‘on the ground’ in Ukraine

British soldiers are “on the ground” in Ukraine helping Kiev forces launch long-range Storm Shadow missiles, according to top-secret calls involving German air force officers leaked to Russian media.

The Kremlin said the leaks showed “the West’s collective” direct involvement in the war in Ukraine, while Britain’s former defense secretary expressed frustration with the German military’s response to the leaks.

The recording, which Germany confirmed as authentic, was released on Friday by Margarita Simonyan, editor of the Kremlin-controlled news channel RT, and shows Luftwaffe officers discussing how to exploit Berlin’s A Taurus missile blew up the Kerch Bridge connecting Russia to Russia. Occupy Crimea.

During the conversation, Luftwaffe commander Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhardt described how Britain was working with Ukraine to deploy Storm Shadow missiles against targets 150 miles behind Russian defenses.

“When it comes to mission planning,” the German commander said, “I know how the British do it, they do it entirely by firing back. They also have some people on the scene who do this, the French don’t do it.”

“Backstop” is a military term that describes how intelligence, equipment and support from the rear are conveyed to troops deployed at the front, but Gerhardts believes the British approach goes much deeper, involving on-site support.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the leaked conversations “once again highlight the West’s collective direct involvement in the conflict in Ukraine” – even as German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Sunday accused Moscow of an “information campaign” against Ukraine. war”. The west.

Still, the authenticity of the 38-minute conversation that took place two weeks ago on the relatively unsecured Webex platform cannot be questioned. The video appears to have been hacked and recorded by Russian actors, who passed it on to RT editors and posted it on Telegram on Friday.

Tobias Ellwood, Britain’s former deputy defense secretary, said the leak was an embarrassment for Berlin, although he told the BBC that given the intensity of British spying, Russia was likely aware of Britain’s presence.

But this “should not prevent some serious conversations in the diplomatic corridors between Germany and the UK and indeed NATO, about why this is happening”, Ellwood added.

Last Tuesday, Britain confirmed for the first time that it had a “small number of personnel” in Ukraine but did not reveal what mission they were carrying out, amid concerns that any potential involvement in the fighting could be seen as an escalation by Moscow.

It comes after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a surprising statement last Monday in which he said he would not supply Taurus missiles to Ukraine because it would require a German presence to compete with Britain and France and take “targets” way of control”. and the accompanying goal control”.

He warned that even if the soldiers were stationed in Germany, they risked making Berlin a “war player.” “German soldiers were not able to connect to the targets set by this system at any time and anywhere. [the Taurus] Reached,” he added.

In the recording, Gerhartz and three other German officers are discussing the chancellor’s refusal and how to get around the decision, before the Air Force chief of staff holds a 30-minute meeting with Defense Minister Pistorius. They complained that some German journalists were told that the Taurus was not efficient.

They concluded that rapid delivery and use of missiles in the near future would be possible only with the participation of German soldiers. It is possible for Taurus to train Ukrainian soldiers to avoid sending German soldiers onto Ukrainian territory, but it would take months of preparation.

The Taurus missile has a longer maximum range than its French counterparts, the Storm Shadow and Scalp missiles, at 300 miles. During the conference call, German officers discussed the types of potential targets for Taurus, including a “bridge in the east” that was said to be difficult to reach with “relatively small” pillars.

This description is consistent with the strategic Kerch Bridge, a vital supply route to Russian-occupied Crimea, which the Ukrainians have so far been unable to destroy despite repeated attempts to bomb it. They concluded that blowing up the bridge was technically feasible but would likely require “10 to 20 missiles.”

Roderich Kiesewetter, a defense expert for the opposition Christian Democrats, said Russia leaked the meeting just in time to specifically “sabotage the delivery of Germany’s Taurus.” He said the leaks were “an attempt to divert public discussion from other issues,” including the death of Alexei Navalny.