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German Taurus leak
The German Taurus leak was a military communications leak in 2024 that resulted from Russia's interception of a supposedly top-secret webconference of German airforce officials about the possible supply of German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine and about operational scenarios in the Russian-Ukrainian War.
Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Russia's RT channel, released the 38-minute recording on Telegram and VK on 1 March 2024. Germany confirmed the recording was of a real conversation but said it couldn't rule out that the recording might have been edited; Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised a swift investigation.
The leak of the conversation between lieutenant general Ingo Gerhartz, commander of the Luftwaffe, and three subordinates was profoundly embarrassing to the Bundeswehr – it caused a political scandal and was seen as a propaganda coup for Russia. Among the topics the officials discussed in their conversation, conducted using standard commercial Cisco Webex video conferencing software, were the presence of UK and US military personnel in Ukraine and the potential use of Taurus missiles to blow up the Crimean Bridge.
On 19 February, Gerhartz and his subordinates were discussing an upcoming briefing to bring German Defense minister Boris Pistorius up to speed on Taurus. One of the officials participated from Singapore, where he was attending the biennial military Singapore Airshow, and joined the conversation via Cisco Webex from his hotel, the use of which is authorised in the German armed forces up to the "Classified – for official use only" level of secrecy ("Verschlusssache – Nur für den Dienstgebrauch" or "VS-NfD"). German investigators subsequently concluded this was the weak link enabling the call to be intercepted.
A week after the intercepted 19 February conversation, and a few days prior to the 1 March leak of the audio file, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz – under mounting pressure to approve the delivery of long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine – caused controversy by indicating that British soldiers were helping Ukraine fire the Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles supplied by United Kingdom and France, which are less precise than the Taurus and are thought to have either a shorter or a similar range to the Taurus, depending on the precise version supplied to Ukraine. Scholz argued that Germany would not be able to follow the example of the UK and France: "This [the Taurus] is a very far-reaching weapon, and what the British and French are doing in terms of target control and support for target control cannot be done in Germany. Everyone who has looked at this system understands that." "German soldiers can at no point and in no place be linked with the targets that this system [the Taurus] reaches. Not even in Germany," Scholz said. Following the UK's example would make Germany a "participant in the war". The degree of German involvement required was one of the topics Gerhartz and his subordinates discussed in the intercepted conversation.
Gerhartz and his subordinates discussed how much Taurus training and support Germany might need to provide if Taurus missiles were sent to Ukraine, and whether this would include targeting and programming information. Gerhartz said there was confusion about Scholz's position: "No one knows why the federal chancellor is blocking the dispatch of the missiles – this gives rise to all sorts of outlandish rumours." The officials mentioned France and the UK, noting that the latter have soldiers in Ukraine advising the Ukrainian military on bombing decisions.
Gerhartz said: ″When it comes to mission planning, for example, I know how the British do it, they do it completely in reachback [i.e. with support from people who are not forward-deployed]. They also have a few people on the ground, they do that, the French don't. So, they also QC the Ukrainians when loading the SCALP, because Storm Shadow and SCALPS are relatively similar from a purely technical point of view. They've already told me that, yes, for God's sake, they would also look over the shoulders of the Ukrainians when loading the Taurus. But the question is, how do we solve that? Do we let them do the mission planning and give them MBDA as a reachback and then put one of our people in MBDA?″
The participants discussed using the defense contractor MBDA in Schrobenhausen as a go-between to send targeting data or to drive the targeting data file by car to Poland – "someone could drive back and forth," one of them suggested. Another cautioned against pitching such ideas to Pistorius because it would scupper the project right away: "We have to be careful that we don't articulate any kill criteria at the beginning," he said. “Imagine what would happen if the press were to catch wind of this!" Such problems, it was argued, could possibly be avoided by involving the US or UK: “We know there are a lot of people with American accents running [around] in civilian clothes [at the Ukrainian command],” one of the officers said. The Crimean Bridge was discussed as a potential target for a Taurus strike – 10 or 20 Taurus missiles might be enough to destroy it, the experts thought.
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German Taurus leak
The German Taurus leak was a military communications leak in 2024 that resulted from Russia's interception of a supposedly top-secret webconference of German airforce officials about the possible supply of German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine and about operational scenarios in the Russian-Ukrainian War.
Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Russia's RT channel, released the 38-minute recording on Telegram and VK on 1 March 2024. Germany confirmed the recording was of a real conversation but said it couldn't rule out that the recording might have been edited; Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised a swift investigation.
The leak of the conversation between lieutenant general Ingo Gerhartz, commander of the Luftwaffe, and three subordinates was profoundly embarrassing to the Bundeswehr – it caused a political scandal and was seen as a propaganda coup for Russia. Among the topics the officials discussed in their conversation, conducted using standard commercial Cisco Webex video conferencing software, were the presence of UK and US military personnel in Ukraine and the potential use of Taurus missiles to blow up the Crimean Bridge.
On 19 February, Gerhartz and his subordinates were discussing an upcoming briefing to bring German Defense minister Boris Pistorius up to speed on Taurus. One of the officials participated from Singapore, where he was attending the biennial military Singapore Airshow, and joined the conversation via Cisco Webex from his hotel, the use of which is authorised in the German armed forces up to the "Classified – for official use only" level of secrecy ("Verschlusssache – Nur für den Dienstgebrauch" or "VS-NfD"). German investigators subsequently concluded this was the weak link enabling the call to be intercepted.
A week after the intercepted 19 February conversation, and a few days prior to the 1 March leak of the audio file, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz – under mounting pressure to approve the delivery of long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine – caused controversy by indicating that British soldiers were helping Ukraine fire the Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles supplied by United Kingdom and France, which are less precise than the Taurus and are thought to have either a shorter or a similar range to the Taurus, depending on the precise version supplied to Ukraine. Scholz argued that Germany would not be able to follow the example of the UK and France: "This [the Taurus] is a very far-reaching weapon, and what the British and French are doing in terms of target control and support for target control cannot be done in Germany. Everyone who has looked at this system understands that." "German soldiers can at no point and in no place be linked with the targets that this system [the Taurus] reaches. Not even in Germany," Scholz said. Following the UK's example would make Germany a "participant in the war". The degree of German involvement required was one of the topics Gerhartz and his subordinates discussed in the intercepted conversation.
Gerhartz and his subordinates discussed how much Taurus training and support Germany might need to provide if Taurus missiles were sent to Ukraine, and whether this would include targeting and programming information. Gerhartz said there was confusion about Scholz's position: "No one knows why the federal chancellor is blocking the dispatch of the missiles – this gives rise to all sorts of outlandish rumours." The officials mentioned France and the UK, noting that the latter have soldiers in Ukraine advising the Ukrainian military on bombing decisions.
Gerhartz said: ″When it comes to mission planning, for example, I know how the British do it, they do it completely in reachback [i.e. with support from people who are not forward-deployed]. They also have a few people on the ground, they do that, the French don't. So, they also QC the Ukrainians when loading the SCALP, because Storm Shadow and SCALPS are relatively similar from a purely technical point of view. They've already told me that, yes, for God's sake, they would also look over the shoulders of the Ukrainians when loading the Taurus. But the question is, how do we solve that? Do we let them do the mission planning and give them MBDA as a reachback and then put one of our people in MBDA?″
The participants discussed using the defense contractor MBDA in Schrobenhausen as a go-between to send targeting data or to drive the targeting data file by car to Poland – "someone could drive back and forth," one of them suggested. Another cautioned against pitching such ideas to Pistorius because it would scupper the project right away: "We have to be careful that we don't articulate any kill criteria at the beginning," he said. “Imagine what would happen if the press were to catch wind of this!" Such problems, it was argued, could possibly be avoided by involving the US or UK: “We know there are a lot of people with American accents running [around] in civilian clothes [at the Ukrainian command],” one of the officers said. The Crimean Bridge was discussed as a potential target for a Taurus strike – 10 or 20 Taurus missiles might be enough to destroy it, the experts thought.