German Taurus leak

[4] The leak of the conversation between lieutenant general Ingo Gerhartz, commander of the Luftwaffe, and three subordinates was profoundly embarrassing to the Bundeswehr – it caused a political scandal and was seen as a propaganda coup for Russia.

[1][2] Among the topics the officials discussed in their conversation, conducted using standard commercial Cisco Webex video conferencing software, were the presence of UK and US military personnel in Ukraine and the potential use of Taurus missiles to blow up the Crimean Bridge.

"[7] Such problems, it was argued, could possibly be avoided by involving the US or UK: “We know there are a lot of people with American accents running [around] in civilian clothes [at the Ukrainian command],” one of the officers said.

[15] The reference to mission planning by "reachback", for example, meaning consultation of British personnel stationed in Britain, turned into a missile transport using "armoured Ridgeback vehicles".

[4][11] The German government sought to portray the officials' exchanges as a sort of war-gaming that is an integral part of military officers' jobs, saying the real scandal was Putin's "information war".

[11] German defence politician Joe Weingarten thought the officers' conduct was "unprofessional" and said he considered it "highly problematic how the leadership of the air force is chatting about a key security policy issue in such a light-hearted casino tone", adding that a sensitive issue like the delivery of German cruise missiles to the Ukrainian war zone required "much more professional planning and decision-making processes".

The reason the air force call could nonetheless be recorded was because of an individual's operational mistake," referring to one of the other participants who had joined the discussion with Gerhartz from Singapore.

In fact, the UK itself had confirmed the presence of a "small number of personnel" in Ukraine to the public on 27 February 2024, although without saying what tasks they were undertaking, as it was feared any combat involvement could be considered as escalatory.

"[2] Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins wrote that the leak "boosted Vladimir Putin’s claim that this is a war of the west against Russia, with Ukraine as mere proxy.

"[21] In February 2025 the Russian comedy duo Vovan and Lexus called Johann Wadephul, a representative of the German Parliament and member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, pretending to be employees of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.