Germany Refuses to Apologise to UK over Leaking Military Secrets, Confirming British Troops in Ukraine

Germany has refused to apologise to the United Kingdom for appearing to disclose that British troops are active on the ground in Ukraine, with Berlin’s ambassador to London declaring there is “no need” to say sorry to its ally.

Last week, in an apparent effort to save face over his refusal to supply Ukraine with its stock of long-range Taurus cruise missiles, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz seemingly disclosed that both France and the United Kingdom have troops on the ground in the war-torn country to oversee the use of their own long-range missiles, while saying that such a step represented a risk he is unwilling to take given the potential for sparking a wider conflict with Russia.

Although many Western countries have some level of military presence in Ukraine, for purposes such as protecting embassies and diplomats, Scholz appeared to confirm that the UK was far more active on the ground, even suggesting that British troops were aiding the Ukrainians load and target UK-supplied missiles at specific objectives.

The comments from Scholz were followed by a leaked recording of top German military officials, including the head of the German Luftwaffe (Air Force) Generalleutnant Ingo Gerhartz, appearing to confirm that British soldiers were providing military intelligence on targets and overseeing the launches of cruise missiles on Russian targets.

The recording, leaked by Moscow, has been confirmed by the German Defence Ministry, however, they left some questions unanswered by saying that it was currently unclear if portions of the audio had been edited before its release by Russia.

Despite not openly denying the veracity of the recording, Berlin has attempted to cast off the scandal as an act of Russian “disinformation” intended to sow discord among Western allies.

This was the line taken up by Germany’s ambassador to Britain, Miguel Berger, who told the BBC’s Today programme that the leak was “a Russian hybrid attack” seeking to “destabilise the West” and therefore said that there is “no need to apologise” to the UK or France.

“We have to be careful not to fall into the Russian trap of creating division and regrettably some media and some people have fallen into this trap,” the ambassador said in comments reported by London’s Daily Telegraph.

Nevertheless, a rift among the three major Western European powers does seem to be emerging, with French President Emmanuel Macron urging allies to not act “cowardly“, in an apparent jibe at Berlin for refusing to send long-range missiles to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, former British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said that the leaked German military recording showed that Berlin is “neither secure nor reliable” as a partner while claiming that the UK has information indicating that “Germany is pretty penetrated by Russian intelligence”.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius claimed on Tuesday that the leak was a result of a single individual and therefore not representative of a system-wide failure. He claimed that one of the participants on the recording had called in from a Singapore air show conference via an insecure Webex line through which the Russians could have easily tapped in.

Although the Defence chief said that secret intelligence should not have been discussed over the line, it meant that Moscow has not fundamentally compromised Germany’s clandestine communications systems.

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