BERLIN

Germany sought Tuesday to downplay an audio leak of senior army personnel discussing the war in Ukraine, blaming particular person error and stressing that Berlin nonetheless had the belief of allies.

A 38-minute recording of the talks, through which the officers debated the attainable use of German-made Taurus missiles by Ukraine, was posted on-line late Friday on Russian social media.

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

The preliminary outcomes of a probe confirmed the German military’s “communications systems are not and were not compromised”, the minister mentioned.

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

One of the individuals, who was attending the Singapore Airshow, had dialled into the assembly through an “unauthorised connection” resulting in the intercept, Pistorius mentioned.

With a number of senior army officers in attendance on the present from totally different international locations, the occasion would have been a “field day” for Russian intelligence, he mentioned.

The accommodations utilized by attendees could be focused by “widespread wiretapping efforts”, he added.

The succesful interception of the German army name was subsequently a “random hit in the scope of a broad-based approach”, Pistorius mentioned.

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

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

Pistorius mentioned he had telephoned allies over the leak and was reassured that their “trust in Germany is unbroken”.

“Everyone knows about the danger of such wiretapping attacks and knows that no one can offer 100 percent protection.”

Germany has been underneath strain to ship Taurus missiles to Ukraine in response to pressing calls from Kiev, copying French and British strikes to ship their very own long-range weapons programs.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has nonetheless declined to approve the deliveries, fearing it may draw Germany into the conflict.