The defence and home secretaries blame Russia after receiving calls from imposters this week.
Image source, Getty Images
The UK defence secretary has ordered an inquiry after revealing a man called him pretending to be the Ukrainian prime minister.
Ben Wallace, who is currently in Poland, tweeted that an “imposter” had contacted him and asked “several misleading questions”.
The minister said he ended the call after becoming suspicious.
He blamed the incident on Russian “dirty tricks” – although did not give any further information.
The Ministry of Defence said that Mr Wallace has now ordered an immediate inquiry into how the prankster was able to call him.
A Ministry of Defence source said the inquiry was looking into “how this was able to happen” but gave no details of what Mr Wallace may have told the hoax caller, or who made the call.
Mr Wallace added: “No amount of Russian disinformation, distortion and dirty tricks” would distract from Russia’s “human rights abuses and illegal invasion of Ukraine”.
The BBC has been told that the video call involved an actor in front of a Ukrainian flag, who asked a range “of wild questions”.
Defence sources say they are concerned that there may be an attempt to distort or edit Mr Wallace’s answers before he terminated the call.