Berlin has yet to confirm the authenticity of discussions between German officers about helping Ukraine to attack a bridge in Russia, but a preliminary probe indicates the recording is probably genuine, according to German media reports.
The leaked audio file is widely circulating in the Bundeswehr and is currently “classed as authentic,” Germany’s Welt newspaper wrote on Friday evening, citing “several soldiers” who have studied the recording.
Spiegel also wrote that after the first analysis “the recording is probably authentic.” It added that German counterintelligence immediately launched a probe into the matter and that “according to an initial assessment, AI-supported counterfeiting is largely ruled out.”
The German Defense Ministry has refused to address the contents of the communications, but acknowledged in a brief statement to the German press that the military was “checking whether communications within the Air Force were intercepted.”
On Friday, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan published a transcript and audio recording of the conversation between four officers of the German air force (Luftwaffe), including its top General Ingo Gerhartz and senior Luftwaffe officers, saying that she had obtained the file from Russian security officials.
In the 38-minute audio dated February 19, the officers discussed the operational and targeting details of Taurus long-range missiles that Germany was considering sending to Ukraine, as if this had already been agreed upon – and how to maintain plausible deniability so that Germany could avoid crossing the “red line” of direct involvement.