German army leaks ‘just tip of the iceberg’
Russia sees Scholz as a ‘useful idiot’ and may have intercepted more secrets, say sources
GERMAN military leaks that have put British troops at risk could be the tip of the iceberg, Berlin’s former intelligence chief warned last night.
August Hanning said that more Nato secrets may have been compromised after Russia intercepted and published a video call disclosing military information. “This leak could have been just the tip of the iceberg,” he told the German newspaper Bild.
Sources claimed yesterday that Russia had identified Germany as the “weakest link” in Nato and was using Olaf Scholz as a “useful idiot”.
The German chancellor was under pressure last night after the Luftwaffe revealed details of British “troops on the ground” in Ukraine in an unsecure video conference call.
Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, will travel to Berlin on Thursday for a meeting with his German counterpart, where the leaks are expected to be raised. The Foreign Office sought to play down a possible clash at the meeting, saying: “There will be detailed discussions about both the big issues of the moment: Ukraine and Gaza.”
Mr Scholz personally suggested British troops were helping fire cruise missiles last week, leading to the Kremlin claiming Western allies were entering the war with Russia.
In the leaked video call, the head of the German air force said Britain “have a few people on the ground [operating] in reachback”, a military term that suggests units deployed deep into Ukraine.
The revelations put British troops at risk, military experts have warned, as their role on the ground was previously assumed to be limited. Russian propagandists broadcast the intercepted video conference call between German air force officers, which took place using off-the-shelf software Webex.
Meanwhile, security experts warned yesterday that Britain was not ready for a “high-casualty scenario” if a wider conflict broke out in Europe. Experts from the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) said contingency plans were “ill-suited” to dealing with returning injured soldiers and the possibility of attacks closer to British soil.
The video leak was described as a “wake-up call” for Germany by Christian Lindner, Mr Scholz’s coalition partner, last night. The leader of the Free Democrat Party said Germany was being targeted by Vladimir Putin. Downing Street yesterday described the leak of British military secrets as a “very serious matter”.
A diplomatic source said: “More worryingly, Russia has identified Germany as the weakest link in the alliance and Scholz as a useful idiot to take Germany out of the equation.
“And they [Russia] might not be wrong given the way he positions Germany and his party in this debate.”
Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, has previously warned that Russian agents have a foothold within the country’s security services.
The leaked audio was released amid a mounting political row in Berlin over the deliveries of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. Mr Scholz is under pressure at home and abroad to match Britain and France’s donations of Storm Shadow missiles. He has insisted that such a move would drag his country into a direct war with Moscow.
The leaked audio clip contained discussions over whether German troops
would be needed on the ground to help Ukrainian forces operate the missiles. The officials on the conference call also appeared to discuss whether Kyiv could use the precision weapon to strike the Kerch bridge, which connects occupied Crimea with mainland Russia.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, said the leak “confirms once again that the countries of the collective West are being drawn into the conflict around Ukraine”. He added that the leaks also demonstrated that it was “more than obvious” that Germany was “discussing substantive and specific plans to strike Russian territory”.
Germany dismissed Moscow’s claim that it was preparing a strike on Russia as “absurd propaganda”.
A spokesman for Rishi Sunak said the leak would not deter Britain’s support for Ukraine and its work with Germany.
Asked about the security breach, one of the worst by Berlin since the Cold War, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “It’s obviously a matter for Germany to investigate and you’ve got Chancellor Scholz’s words on this.”
EU sources said the bloc’s intelligence practices were under constant review because of the threat of Russian attacks. A Nato official said: “We don’t comment on intelligence matters.”
Warnings were also issued last night that the NHS must prepare for a “highcasualty scenario” in case war breaks out in Europe. Colonel Si Horne, who served as an emergency doctor in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and South Sudan, said the health service and Ministry of Defence’s plans to deal with military casualties were insufficient and “Afghanistan-era”.
Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, the head of the British Army, previously warned it was time to consider conscription. Downing Street quickly moved to rule out such a move and insisted the Army would remain voluntary.
But the military medical experts said the Government must increase the country’s resilience ahead of a possible conflict, in a way that it failed to do for the pandemic.
“Recent warnings on the potential of war have focused on the military’s fighting capability and physical component, rather than the arguably more critical enablers and moral component needed to win a war,” the pair wrote in an editorial for the think tank.
In recent conflicts, including Afghanistan, most Army personnel were treated at bases nearer to the warzone. However, they say a future conflict is likely to present very different challenges to the military and the NHS, which is already “increasingly strained”.