German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius stated on March 5 that Russia intercepted the audio of a high-level military discussion on Ukraine because a participant had connected to the Webex call from an insecure line at a hotel in Singapore. Mr. Pistorius added that Russia likely intercepted the discussion among senior German air force officials by chance through widespread surveillance. He presented the preliminary findings of an investigation into the leak, which has caused embarrassment for Germany and raised concerns about its intelligence security. Addressing the issue from Berlin after a military intelligence probe, Mr. Pistorius clarified that German communication systems were not compromised.
Last week, Russian media released an audio recording of a meeting among German officials on the Webex platform, where the discussion included the delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine and the potential for Kyiv to strike a bridge in Crimea. Mr. Pistorius emphasized, “Our communication systems have not been compromised “. He explained that despite this assurance, the recording of the air force call occurred due to an operational mistake made by an individual.
The participant, identified as Brigadier-General Frank Grafe, connected to the call from a hotel room in Singapore during an air show. This information was disclosed in a transcript shared by Ms. Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Russian state broadcaster RT on March 1. Brigadier-General Frank Grafe was one of four high-ranking German air force officers participating in the call.
The Singapore Air show, held from February 20 to 25, drew the attention of Russian security services due to the presence of high-ranking European military officials. While Mr. Pistorius refrained from disclosing the officer’s identity, he mentioned that the individual accessed the WebEx call using either his mobile phone or the hotel’s Wi-Fi network, instead of a secure line typically used for such calls. Describing the situation, the Defense Minister stated, “For the Russian secret services, it was a significant discovery… Targeted hacking occurred in the hotels universally employed”. He added, “So we must assume that the access to this WebEx conference was a chance hit in the framework of a broad, scattered approach.”
The utilization of WebEx for calls up to a specific security grade received authorization, clarified Mr. Pistorius, emphasizing that the software used was not off-the-shelf but a specially certified version with servers located in the Bundeswehr’s computing centers in Germany. Despite this, Germany is conducting an investigation to determine if any sensitive issues were discussed on the call that should not have been disclosed via Webex. According to Mr. Pistorius, Russia leaked the call in an attempt to sow discord within Germany and between the country and its allies.
The leaked call involved German Air Force Chief Ingo Gerhartz discussing the potential delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Kyiv, a proposal publicly rejected by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, sparking a significant public debate. When questioned about the possible impact on Lieutenant-General Gerhartz’s position, Mr. Pistorius remarked that unless further revelations emerge in the investigation, he is not inclined to sacrifice one of his top officers to “Putin’s games.” To prevent a recurrence of such incidents, Germany plans to implement technical and organizational measures, and Mr. Pistorius confirmed that he had discussed the matter with counterparts in partner countries on March 4, receiving continued trust in Germany from them.
“Everyone knows about the danger of such eavesdropping attacks and know that you cannot ensure 100 per cent protection against them,” he said. Germany’s allies have been reserved in their public response to the recording, although some British politicians outside of government criticized German security measures.
Former British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace was quoted in The Times as saying that the incident illustrated that Germany was “neither secure nor reliable.” The Kremlin contends that the recording implies Germany’s armed forces were discussing plans to launch strikes on Russian territory, a claim vehemently denied by Germany as “absurd.”
