German intelligene service intercepts radio communications linking Russian soldiers to Bucha war crime

Germany’s foreign intelligence service told a parliamentary committee Wednesday that it has intercepted radio communications where Russian soldiers talked about shooting soldiers and civilians in Ukraine, a source with knowledge of the meeting said.

The briefing was the top item at the Wednesday meeting, the source added.

Those intelligence findings — first reported by Der Spiegel — appear to implicate Russian troops in a pattern of apparent war crimes despite denials from Moscow, most recently in the indiscriminate killing of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.

Der Spiegel reported that the BND, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, intercepted Russian radio chatter about the killing of civilians in Bucha, and that some of the conversations could be tied directly to specific killings in Bucha that have been documented since news first emerged of an apparent massacre there.

German intelligence has satellite images that point to the involvement of Russian troops in the Bucha killings, the Washington Post reported, citing an unnamed intelligence official, though the paper said the radio transmissions have not been linked to that location.

News of the German intelligence assessment comes amid massive international outrage over Bucha and a growing body of evidence that points to the Russian military’s involvement in the indiscriminate killing of civilians in Ukraine.