LONDON (AP) – Britain on Tuesday accused Russia of spreading misinformation by releasing manipulated clips of Britain’s defense chief speaking to a fraudster posing as Ukraine’s prime minister.
Two videos of Defense Secretary Ben Wallace speaking to the scammer have been released on the YouTube channel of Russian prank duo Vovan and Lexus. The British government says the Russian state was behind the scam, which it said was aimed at sowing false information and embarrassing Britain.
A clip preceded by footage of Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament shows Wallace speaking from Poland to a caller who says Ukraine wants to advance its “nuclear program” to protect itself from Moscow, according to Russian state media have claimed without reason in the past.
Another shows Wallace apparently implying that Britain is “running out” of “our own” NLAW anti-tank weapons after giving Ukraine 4,000 rocket launchers to resist the February 24 invasion of Moscow.
The UK Ministry of Defense said the clips were “released to obscure and manipulate the truth”.
“People should be very skeptical about reporting parts of these Russian state-controlled clips and accepting them as real,” the statement said. It said Britain had “enough weapon systems to both defend Britain’s national security and honor our commitments to NATO”.
The government has launched a security probe into how a scammer posing as Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal was put through in a video call with Wallace on Thursday. Wallace said he became suspicious and hung up after the caller “asked several misleading questions.”
Another prank call was made to Home Secretary Priti Patel and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said an unsuccessful attempt had also been made to speak to her.
The British government accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of staging diversions “to hide the scale of the conflict and Russia’s failures on the battlefield”.
“It is intended to be a distraction from their illegal activities in Ukraine and their human rights abuses and therefore we will not be distracted from our goal of ensuring that Putin fails in Ukraine,” said Max Blain, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Vovan and Lexus have previously targeted international figures such as Prince Harry, Elton John and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The couple – real names Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov – have been accused of having links to Russian security services, a claim they deny.
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