What is known about the leaked conversation between Bundeswehr officers about the attack on the Crimean bridge?

High-ranking Bundeswehr officers discussed the possibility of attacking the Crimean Bridge, including with Taurus cruise missiles, according to a transcript of the conversation published by RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.

According to Simonyan, the conversation took place on February 19 between German Air Force Inspector Ingo Gerhartz, Frank Grefe, Chief of Operations and Exercises, фnd the employees of the Air Operations Center of the Bundeswehr Space Command, Fenske and Frostedte

The publication caused a serious resonance in Russia. TASS collected the main information about the situation.

On the morning of March 1, Simonyan reported that she had a 40-minute audio recording of a conversation between high-ranking German military officers about plans for a missile attack on the Crimean Bridge. She noted that the participants in the conversation discussed the possibility of such an attack without consequences for Berlin.

Simonyan said she asked for a comment from the German authorities and promised to publish the recording later.

In the afternoon, Simonyan published a Russian-language transcript of the conversation, noting that the German side did not respond to her request.

The participants of the conversation, as follows from the transcript, discuss the possible transfer of long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine. According to them, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has instructed the issue to be worked on, while Chancellor Olaf Scholz is "blocking these deliveries."

According to German officers, "the bridge in the east is hard to reach" and it "may not require 10 or even 20 missiles." At the same time, they expressed the opinion that this would be possible with the Taurus missiles if they were equipped with the French Dassault Rafale fighter.

In addition, the German military emphasized that if the Taurus is transferred to Kiev, the missiles "will be ready for use only after eight months" because it is necessary to exclude the possibility of "erroneous use."

Reaction in Russia

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters prior to the publication of the transcript that the Kremlin does not yet have data on the content of the recording.

Later, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, commenting on Simonyan's publication, said that "the hybrid war unleashed by the West is in full swing." Zakharova also said that the Bundeswehr is "covering its tracks" by blocking accounts in X (formerly Twitter) that spread the conversation of German officers about the Taurus.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, cited Konstantin Simonov's poem "Kill him!" in his Telegram channel. "The Germans have once again turned into sworn enemies," he emphasized.

Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin announced a discussion of the German officers' conversation at a Duma session after the deputies return from the regions where they are staying until March 11.

The Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, Vladimir Bulavin, called on the FRG authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and "provide the international community with the volume of the evidence".