Germany’s defense minister on Sunday said that Russia’s leak of a conversation by ranking German military officers to be part of an “information war” against the West and that the aim was to create discord within Germany. 

In an audio recording leaked by the Russian state press on Friday, German military officers can be heard discussing support for Ukraine. Their chatter included the potential use of Taurus missiles from German stocks. Germany’s defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said the timing was not a coincidence.

The audio was leaked on the same day that late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was laid to rest after his still-unexplained death last month in an Arctic penal colony.

“It is part of an information war that Putin is waging,” Mr. Pistorius said at a news briefing at Berlin. “It is a hybrid attack aimed at disinformation. It is about division. It is about undermining our resolve.”

In the 38-minute recording, military officers discuss the question of how the Taurus long-range cruise missiles could be used by Ukraine. The audio was leaked as a debate has been taking place in Germany over whether to supply the missiles.

Ukraine has been asking for them as it faces setbacks on the battlefield after two years of war, and with military aid from Washington still being held up in Congress.

In the audio recording, German officers discuss the theoretical possibility of the missiles being used in Ukraine. Mr. Pistorius said the officers made clear at all times in the recording that “the line of war participation … would not be crossed.”

Last week Chancellor Scholz said he remains reluctant to send the Taurus missiles to Ukraine, pointing to a risk of Germany becoming directly involved in the war. His hesitancy is a source of friction in his three-party coalition and has also annoyed Germany’s conservative opposition.

President Macron contributed to the current controversy, albeit indirectly. Late last month Mr. Macron said that he would not rule out sending troops to Ukraine. Following that, Mr. Scholz ruled out Germany’s sending Taurus cruise missiles. He also said that France and Britain, by sending shorter-range cruise missiles and target data to Ukraine, could be making themselves parties to the conflict. 

Those candid remarks made publicly sparked a rare rebuke from London, with the former defense secretary, Ben Wallace, saying that “Scholz’s behavior has showed that as far as the security of Europe goes he is the wrong man, in the wrong job at the wrong time.”

As for the leaked audio itself, it bears the hallmark signs of a Russian espionage operation and represents an embarrassment for Berlin’s counterintelligence services. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, stated that the recording demonstrated the “cunning plans” of the German armed forces and called the leak “blatant self-exposure.” 

The former Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, current head of the country’s security council, went further, stating on Telegram that “Germany is preparing for war with Russia.”

Mr. Pistorius, however, hinted that a measured retaliation could be forthcoming: “Accordingly, we should react in a particularly level-headed manner, but no less resolutely,” the German foreign minister said Sunday.