The Kremlin claims an audio recording released by Russian media last week is evidence that Germany is planning to conduct strikes on Russian territory—the second time in days that Moscow has reacted to what it claims is evidence of an impending Western attack.
The audio captures a purported meeting of senior German military officials discussing supplying arms to Ukraine and a possible attack that Kyiv could conduct targeting a bridge in Crimea—the peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
“The recording itself says that within the Bundeswehr [German military], plans to launch strikes on Russian territory are being discussed substantively and concretely,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday, according to Reuters.
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“This does not require any legal interpretation. Everything here is more than obvious,” Peskov continued. “Here we have to find out whether the Bundeswehr is doing this on its own initiative. Then the question is: How controllable is the Bundeswehr and how much does [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz control the situation? Or is it part of German government policy?”
Peskov added that both possibilities are “very bad.”
“Both once again emphasize the direct involvement of the countries of the collective West in the conflict around Ukraine,” he added.
Germany says it is investigating an apparent instance of Russian eavesdropping in relation to the audio. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Sunday said the leak was “much more than just the interception and publication of a conversation” in that it is “part of an information war that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is waging.”
The row over the German audio comes after Putin last week said the West could provoke a nuclear war if it sent soldiers to fight in Ukraine.
His comments came after French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the possibility of European countries sending their troops to support Kyiv—an eventuality that was quickly dismissed by France’s NATO allies. Peskov said a direct conflict between Russia and NATO would be an “inevitability” if the military alliance deployed troops in Ukraine.
