NNA - Germany sought Tuesday to downplay an audio leak of senior military personnel discussing the war in Ukraine, blaming "individual error" and stressing that Berlin still had the trust of allies.

A 38-minute recording of the talks, in which the officers debated the possible use of German-made Taurus missiles by Ukraine, was posted Friday on Russian social media.

"A serious mistake happened here that should not have happened," Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told a press conference.

The initial results of a probe showed the German army's "communications systems are not and were not compromised", the minister said.

"The reason the phone call could still be recorded... is due to an individual user error," he said. -- AFP

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