Ben Wallace 'prank' video surfaces as UK blames Kremlin for hoax calls targeting ministers

On Monday evening, an "official teaser" appeared online showing Defence Secretary Ben Wallace on a video call he believed was with Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal. It was not. The footage was billed as a "video-prank" by "Vovan and Lexus", a pair previously linked to a hoax aimed at the Duke of Sussex. It surfaced just after Downing Street publicly blamed the Kremlin for a run of hoax calls to UK ministers.

In the clip, Wallace is shown speaking from Poland. The caller says Ukraine wants to pursue a "nuclear programme" to protect itself from Moscow, a claim Russian state media has made in the past without basis. Wallace did not appear to say anything especially embarrassing or sensitive, though the teaser promised a "full interview" within "a few days". Officials were understood to be lobbying YouTube to take the video down.

The Ministry of Defence rejected the clip. A source there called it "garbage" and "a doctored clip", saying what viewers do not hear is Wallace telling the caller that the UK can have nothing to do with alleged Ukrainian nuclear ambitions, because Britain is committed to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Wallace answered publicly on Twitter. If Russia was resorting to "pranks and video fakes", he wrote, things must be going very badly for the Kremlin, and it was not the behaviour of a confident government. He added a jab about the "Salisbury Cathedral sightseeing story", a reference to Russia's earlier account of the Salisbury poisoning suspects.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has also said she spoke to imposters. Last Thursday she tweeted that it had happened to her earlier in the week, calling it a "pathetic attempt at such difficult times to divide us" and adding, "We stand with Ukraine." An attempt aimed at Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries was unsuccessful.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said the Russian state was responsible for the hoax calls made to UK ministers last week. He called it standard practice for Russian information operations, a tactic "straight from the Kremlin playbook" meant to distract from what he described as illegal activities and human rights abuses in Ukraine. He spoke of a string of distraction stories and outright lies, which he said reflected Putin's desperation to hide the scale of the conflict and Russia's failings on the battlefield.

Wallace had said last week that he believed Russia was to blame, and Downing Street has now said so on the record. Shortly after his call on Thursday he disclosed that he had been targeted, hoping to get ahead of any attempt by Moscow to circulate footage. He also launched a cross-Whitehall investigation into how he came to be on the call. Senior government sources feared the Russians might doctor footage from the calls to embarrass the UK, and ministers are now braced for more videos.

Vovan and Lexus, whose real names are Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, have a long record. They have previously targeted Sir Elton John, a vocal opponent of Russia's "gay propaganda" laws, as well as critics of the Kremlin and world leaders including Canada's Justin Trudeau. Critics accuse them of links to Russian security services, which they deny.

The episode came as Boris Johnson hinted at more military support for Ukraine after a call with Joe Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron, Germany's Olaf Scholz and Italy's Mario Draghi. Johnson spoke of his "horror" at Putin's "increasingly brutal tactics", including siege warfare and attacks on civilians. The leaders affirmed their commitment to equipping the democratically elected government in Kyiv to defend itself. Biden is due at a Nato summit in Brussels on Thursday, where No 10 said Johnson wants to discuss how to "qualitatively improve" Ukraine's defensive capability.