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RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan published on March 1 a transcript and a recording of a conversation between senior German officials discussing a plot to directly help Ukraine attack the Crimean bridge in Russia with German-made Taurus cruise missiles.
Simonyan first published the transcript of the phone call, which took place on February 19, on her VK page, identifying the participants as the head of the German Air Force, General Ingo Gerhartz, the branch’s deputy chief of staff for operations, Brigadier General Frank Graefe and two others. Soon after, she shared a 38-minute audio recording of the discussion as well, in German, on her Telegram channel.
In the conversation, the German officers discussed the operational and targeting details of Taurus missiles that Germany was debating sending to Ukraine and how to maintain plausible deniability so that Berlin could avoid crossing the “red line” of direct involvement.
Gerhartz brought up various “tricks” that the Luftwaffe could use, including relying on “many people [in Ukraine] in civilian clothes who speak with an American accent,” but Graefe insisted that “there is no language that makes us a party to the conflict.”
Other officers spoke about providing the Ukrainians with both the missiles and the training to use them, as well as the satellite targeting information, possibly via Poland.
The officers noted the Ukrainians’ fixation on the Crimean Bridge, mainly for political reasons. They noted that the bridge was sturdy enough that not even 20 missiles would be able to destroy it. The 50 or so missiles Berlin could provide Kiev “won’t change the course of the war,” Gerhartz himself admitted.
The Taurus is a Swedish-German low-observable, air-launched cruise missile that is manufactured in Germany by Taurus Systems.
The missile utilizes a GPS-aided inertial navigation system backed by a terrain contour matching system. The same thermographic camera used for terrain navigation helps the missile home on its target during final approach using image matching.
The double 500-kilogram warhead of the missile features a precharge and initial penetrating charge that are designed to defeat hardened underground targets.
Berlin has yet to confirm the authenticity of the leaked discussions between German officers, but a preliminary probe indicates the recording is genuine.
The leaked audio file is widely circulating in the German military and is currently “classified as authentic,” Germany’s Welt newspaper reported on March 1, citing “several soldiers” who have studied the recording.
Spiegel also reported that after the first analysis “the recording is classified as authentic,” noting that German counterintelligence immediately launched a probe into the matter and that “according to an initial assessment, AI-supported counterfeiting is largely ruled out.”
Meanwhile, the German Defense Ministry has refused to address the contents of the communications, but acknowledged in a brief statement that the military was “checking whether communications within the Air Force were intercepted.”
Reacting to the German plot, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that officials in Berlin should provide an explanation “immediately”.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that NATO had “egg on its face” due to the leak. The minister also noted that the German officers knew perfectly well that they were discussing direct involvement, as evidenced by attempts to disguise or hide it.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that the Germans had once again turned into the “archenemies” of the Russian people.
“Just take a look at how thoroughly and in what detail the Krauts are discussing long-range missile strikes on Russia’s territory, and are picking out targets and the most workable ways to harm our Motherland and our people,” he said in a post on the X social platform, adding “Death to the Fascists!”
Ukraine has already received air-launched cruise missiles comparable to the Taurus, the Storm Shadow from the United Kingdom and the SCALP from France. However, the range of both missiles was limited in a way that prevented Kiev forces from using them to attack the Crimean Bridge.
The Kiev regime has already managed to damage the bridge, which links Crimea with the with the Krasnodar Krai region, twice, the first using a booby-trapped truck and the second using a remotely-controlled suicide boat. In both cases, the bridge was quickly fixed.
Germany, which was hesitant to provide support to Ukraine before the start of the Russian military special operation, has now become one of the main military backers of Kiev forces, taking steps so risky that even the United States, the UK and France are not willing to take. Or maybe Berlin is being pushed to do so.
