Germany downplays Ukraine war talk leak, says audio intercepted after participant used ‘unauthorised connection’ to join meeting

After blaming Russia for waging an “information war”, Germany on Tuesday downplayed the leak of an audio recording of senior military officials discussing the Ukraine war, blaming the incident on individual error and stressing that Berlin still had the trust of allies.

“A serious mistake happened here that should not have happened,” Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told a press conference.

Last week, the head of Russia’s state-backed RT channel, Margarita Simonyan posted a 38-minute-long recording of what she claims was a conversation between German officials discussing potential strikes on Crimea on Feb 19.

An initial result of a German probe into the alleged wiretapping of the audio showed the German army’s “communications systems are not and were not compromised”, the minister said.

“The reason the phone call could still be recorded… is due to an individual user error,” he said.

Explaining why the audio might have been leaked, Pistorius said one of the participants of the meeting joined the discussion via an “unauthorised connection,” resulting into an intercept

With several senior military officials in attendance at the show from different countries, the event would have been a “field day” for Russian intelligence, he said.

The hotels used by attendees would be targeted by “widespread wiretapping efforts”, he added.

A successful interception of the audio was, therefore, a “random hit in the scope of a broad-based approach”, Pistorius said.

For now, “personal consequences are not on the table” following the leak, he said.

“I will not sacrifice my best officers to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s game.”