UK Defense Ministry Launches Probe into Phone Hoax Targeting Chief Ben Wallace
LONDON (AA) – The British Defense Ministry launched an inquiry Thursday into a telephone call between Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace and an imposter who pretended to be Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
“Today an attempt was made by an imposter claiming to be Ukrainian PM to speak with me,” Wallace wrote in a tweet. “He posed several misleading questions and after becoming suspicious I terminated the call.”
Wallace described the incident as a “desperate attempt” and blamed it on Russian “dirty tricks.”
“No amount of Russian disinformation, distortion and dirty tricks can distract from Russia’s human rights abuses and illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
BBC News quotes a Defense Ministry source who said the agency launched the inquiry into “how this was able to happen” without giving further details.
The BBC said it was told the video call involved an actor in front of a Ukrainian flag who asked a range “of wild questions.”