Germany not to allow Russian propaganda to shift focus from aid to Ukraine
The recent publication by Russian propagandists of the content of communications between Bundeswehr officers is part of a large-scale disinformation campaign run by Russia against Germany and other Western partners of Ukraine but the attempt to destabilize the situation will not make Berlin refuse from supporting Kyiv.
This was stated by government spokesmen during a briefing on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“The federal government will not allow itself to be swayed by such things and neither will our position be on the question of how we want and how we will provide support to Ukraine," said Deputy Government Spokesman Wolfgang Buchner.
He added that this is far from the first time when Russia tries to cause division in Western societies, including in Germany: unfortunately, there are people who pick up Russian narratives and spread them, "playing Putin's games."
Buchner noted that the German government is in constant interdepartmental consultations on a very serious topic – how to counter targeted Russian disinformation and propaganda.
Asked to comment on Moscow's threats to strike German bridges, Buchner said it was also part of the propaganda campaign.
The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Christian Wagner, in turn drew attention to when exactly the intercept was made public: two weeks before the so-called presidential elections in Russia and a few hours after opposition’s Aleksei Navalny was buried.
"There is a very strong impression that the interested party sought to shuft public focus in this way," the diplomat noted, adding that, in general, the Russian leadership actively promotes for the domestic audience the narrative of the "aggressive West".
"We are trying to counter this and communicate that it is Russia that is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine," Wagner said.
Regarding the statements by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, about "denazification" of Germany, he noted that this is the first time that actors who are part of the government resort to such vocabulary.
As reported, on March 1, Russian propaganda published leaked communications between officers of the German Air Force, Luftwaffe, as they were purportedly discussing the hypothetical use of Taurus missiles by Ukraine. The Bundeswehr confirmed the interception. Military counterintelligence is running an investigation. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned of Russia's ongoing disinformation campaign against Ukraine.