Germany’s defense minister today accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of seeking to “destabilize” the country, after the Russia of confidential conversations between German officers regarding arms deliveries to Ukraine.
“This recording is being used to destabilize” and harm “the unity” of Germany, Boris Pistorius told reporters in Berlin.
“This is clearly about undermining our unity (…), about causing political division at home and I sincerely hope that Putin will not succeed and we will remain united,” he added.
Boris Pistorius also said that Russia is waging an “information war” aimed at causing divisions within Germany.
This is the first reaction of the German Minister of Defense to the disclosure made in Russiaof audio clips from a meeting of high-ranking military officials.
Russian media on Friday released a 38-minute recording of a telephone conversation between German officers in which they are heard discussing arms for Ukraine and a possible Kiev strike on a bridge in Crimea. Russian officials demanded an explanation.
Yesterday, Saturday, Germany spoke of an apparent wiretapping and stated that it is investigating the matter.
“The episode is much bigger than a simple interception and release of a conversation … It is part of an information war being waged by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” Pistorius said today.
“It’s a hybrid disinformation attack. It’s about division. It’s about undermining our unity.”
The Russian embassy in Berlin did not respond to a request for comment.
Research in progress
Scholz has repeatedly ruled out giving Taurus missiles to Ukraine, despite repeated requests from Kiev, expressing fears that Germany could be dragged deeper into the war launched in February 2022 by the Kremlin.
The German Ministry of Defense announced later today that it believed that embezzlement an internal conversation between high-ranking Air Force officers.
“According to our assessment, a conversation was intercepted [μεταξύ αξιωματούχων της Πολεμικής Αεροπορίας]. At the moment we cannot say for sure whether changes have been made to the recorded or transcribed version circulating on social media,” a ministry spokesman in Berlin told the German news agency.
The quote also included a diplomatically sensitive reference to the British having “some people on the ground” in Ukraine regarding the deployment of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles in the country.
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