(Dan Tri) – The leak of a recording of a meeting of German generals about military aid to Ukraine has really made relations between the West and Russia more tense.
German Air Force Commander Ingo Gerhartz (Photo: Reuters).
On March 1, Russian media surprised everyone by releasing a 38-minute recording of a meeting between senior German military officials that took place on February 19, including Air Force Commander Ingo Gerhartz.
The controversial issue is that the focus of the meeting is to discuss the possibility of providing Taurus KEPD 350 long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine and how they can be used to attack Russian targets, including
Commander Gerhartz also discussed many other top secret information about how to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
`No one knows why our Prime Minister Olaf Scholz always blocks efforts to transfer missiles to Ukraine and this is what sparked false rumors. We have been asked to plan the implementation of the mission.`
This incident not only revealed a lot of sensitive German military information, it also caused concern and division among some NATO member countries, in the context of Prime Minister Scholz making London unhappy with the revelation.
According to experts, this incident is also considered a propaganda victory for Russia.
The German government confirmed the authenticity of the call but insisted the German military’s communications system had not been hacked.
`The German military’s communications system was not hacked. The meeting was blocked due to personal error. This is a serious mistake that should not have been allowed to happen,` Minister Pistorius emphasized.
Minister Pistorius also affirmed that the German military has not considered pursuing personal responsibility for the incident.
Germany’s allies did not publicly criticize the leak.
However, experts say that this incident shows that German officials underestimate security threats.
Former British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that the incident proved that `Germany is neither safe nor trustworthy`.
The recording also highlights the extent to which the decision to deploy Taurus missiles was political and that Prime Minister Scholz expressed reservations about Germany getting too directly involved in the war in Ukraine, or risking a conflict.
The Taurus missile can reach twice the range of the Storm Shadow and Scalp missiles, and would therefore allow Ukraine to strike as far as Moscow.
On March 4, the Russian Foreign Ministry also summoned German ambassador Alexander Lambsdorff over this issue to `find out whether the German military acted on its own or this was part of government policy.`
The Russian Foreign Ministry assessed both of these scenarios as very bad, showing that `the West is directly involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict`.
