Germany’s envoy in London on Wednesday insisted that his government was right to be cautious about sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, as he accused Russia over an audio leak that alleged the presence of UK troops on the ground.
The leak of a conversation among German air force officers has attracted fury from former defence secretary Ben Wallace and other figures in the UK security establishment.
But German ambassador Miguel Berger said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Mr Wallace’s caustic attack on Chancellor Olaf Scholz was “extremely unhelpful”.
Asked if he had apologised to the UK Government, Mr Berger said: “No need to apologise. There were calls from the German Defence Minister (Boris) Pistorius to his counterparts to explain what we are doing, that is an investigation ongoing of the military intelligence.
“Preliminary results are out and they showed that it was really an individual mistake by one of the officers in a call which was made over a secure system,” he said, while conceding that the officer had dialled into the call over an insecure hotel internet link in Singapore.
“And I think that's a good lesson for everybody. Never use hotel internet if you want to do a secure call.
“But you know beyond that, I think what is really important to underline is that this (leak) is a Russian hybrid attack again. It's clearly the intention to destabilise the West and it was not a coincidence that this recording was published the day of (Alexei) Navalny’s funeral.”
Lord Anderson of Ipswich, a former Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, expressed disbelief at the envoy’s remarks.
“Can hardly believe what the German Ambassador has just said on @BBCr4today. No apology called for because a ‘secure line’ was used – over hotel Internet!” he tweeted.
Mr Scholz has been under growing pressure to send dozens of Taurus long-range missiles to Ukraine after the leak of the conversation involving Luftwaffe chief Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz showed his country's military is willing to despatch the weapons.
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Britain and France are respectively supplying Storm Shadow and Scalp missiles to Kyiv. Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said on Monday: “We would encourage our allies to do the same.”
But Mr Berger described Taurus as the “Mercedes-Benz” of long-distance systems and that the missiles were capable of reaching Moscow from Ukraine.
“What the chancellor has made clear, and I think it's the right thing to do, is to be very careful how we increase our support to Ukraine,” the ambassador said.
“Currently, the big focus should be on ammunition, on air defence. That is what Ukraine really needs.
“But the chancellor wants to be sure that whatever we do, there is no escalation which could lead then to consequences we all don't want to see.”
