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Germany said on Tuesday that human error was to blame for a recording obtained by Russia of a phone call in which senior German military officials discussed the supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine, denying that its government communications systems had been breached.

In an audio recording released by state broadcaster Russia Today on Friday, four senior German military officers – including the air force chief – allegedly discussed the supply of Taurus missiles to Kiev.

Berlin did not dispute the authenticity of the recording.

“Our communications systems are not and have not been compromised,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told a news conference in Berlin on Tuesday.

“The call was able to be recorded in the Air Force ranks due to an individual application error. Not all participants adhered to the prescribed secure dialing procedures. It is currently known that the data was leaked from a participant in Singapore. He was connected through an unauthorized connection, that is actually through an open connection,” Pistorius said.

The recording was released on the same day as the funeral of late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who died of unknown causes in an Arctic prison two weeks ago.

russian intelligence service

Marina Miron, a defense analyst at King’s College London’s Department of War Studies, said the recording raised questions about what other intelligence Russia was able to collect.

“What we don’t know is what else they knew. This was a phone call they decided to reveal. Maybe Russia knows all this [weapons] trading locations. This is very, very serious, especially in terms of trust in intelligence sharing between Germany and other partner countries. I think this is certainly good for Russia. Because the idea is not to engage in a pitched battle with NATO — an open war — but to destabilize the alliance from within,” Miron told VOA.

Taurus missile

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Germany has repeatedly refused to supply Ukraine with long-range Taurus missiles, citing the risk of escalating relations with Moscow. However, recordings show that senior military figures favor supplying missiles to Kiev.

“This suggests to me that there is some kind of disagreement between higher command and what they foresee as feasible, as opposed to what the political leadership wants. It begs the question, ‘What’s the relationship between the two?’” Mi Long said.

In the recording, officers speculated on whether the Taurus missile would hit the Kerch Bridge that connects Russian-controlled Crimea to the mainland.

British involvement

The recordings also revealed that British military personnel were in Ukraine teaching Kiev troops how to operate London-supplied long-range Storm Shadow missiles.

The British government has yet to comment.

Russia claimed the recording showed “Western collective” involvement in the conflict.

“They kept insisting that the West was not at war with Russia, that the West only provided weapons. It turned out there were Western citizens there [in Ukraine]. They said yes, but they were mercenaries. They retired from military service. In the vast majority of cases it is questionable,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry added that the audio was evidence that Germany had not yet been fully “denazified” – a claim strongly criticized by Berlin.

Germany disputed Russia’s interpretation of the conversation, saying it was part of Moscow’s disinformation campaign.

“It is clear that the claim that this speech will prove that Germany is preparing for war against Russia is notorious Russian propaganda,” government spokesman Wolfgang Buchner told reporters on Monday.

Missile impact

Miron said Russia is concerned that if Ukraine obtains long-range missiles from Western allies, its logistics and supply lines may be severely disrupted.

“I do not think so [German Chancellor] Olaf Scholz will allow Taurus missiles to be deployed to Ukraine.

“So, I think with the release of this recording, Russia wants to make sure that doesn’t happen, because under external pressure, Scholz is able to allow Panther tanks to be shipped to Ukraine. They just want to avoid that possibility. , because it will cause some problems for the Russians,” Miron said.