German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius today attributed the recent leaks of information in the German military about arms deliveries to Kiev to a serious "individual error".
Pistorius said one of the officers participated in the meeting through an "unauthorized connection".
The first results of the investigation showed that "the communication systems of the German army were not compromised", the minister said at the press conference.
The Bundeswehr's communications system is generally reliable, Pistorius said, noting that the allies' trust in Germany "remains intact."
One of the participants, who was in Singapore, accessed the video conference through an "unauthorized connection, so almost an open connection," which led to the leak.
An air show was underway in Singapore at the time, in which high-ranking officers of the allied European countries also participated, "which was a suitable ground for the Russian secret services", added Pistorius.
According to him, Russian spies had access to the meeting through the Webex channel, and this was "the result of coincidence in the context of large-scale eavesdropping".
It was "a serious mistake that should not have happened", said the German minister and added that the trust of the allies remained intact because "everyone knows the danger of eavesdropping and knows that no one can be 100 percent protected".
Pistorius announced the opening of a preliminary investigation, but confirmed that at this stage "no individual consequences are foreseen".
The German minister added that he will not enter into a game with the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, nor sacrifice his best officers.
An audio recording of a video-conference meeting of German high-ranking officers was broadcast on social networks from Russia on Friday.
In that conversation, the possibility of an attack on the Crimean bridge, as well as the delivery of long-range missiles - Taurus - of German production, to Ukraine were discussed in particular.
The German Ministry of Defense then confirmed that the video was authentic and that it had been "intercepted".
The content of the video comes at an awkward time for Germany, as Berlin officially refuses to supply Kiev with Taurus missiles, citing the risk of escalating the war.
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