On March 1, 2024, editor-in-chief of Russian state-run channel RT, Margarita Simonyan, shared a 38-minute recording of an internal German military call about Ukraine. In the clip posted to Telegram and other platforms, four senior German military officers, including the chief of the German air force, discussed whether German Taurus cruise missiles would be capable of destroying the Kerch bridge connecting mainland Russia to occupied and illegally annexed Crimea. At the time, German Chancellor Scholz had repeatedly refused to deliver such missiles to Ukaine. The Kremlin used the recording to allege that Western powers were planning to strike Russian territory and place British troops in Ukraine. These claims caused panic in NATO countries, particularly in the UK. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius promised a swift investigation into the “very serious matter” of this “hybrid attack of disinformation”. The investigation concluded that a Russian spy had dialed into the Webex-call without being noticed due to “individual errors”.