7 June
2024
– 5:27 p.m
(Updated at 5:42 p.m.)
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron even had a video call with a man claiming to be Ukraine's former president Petro Poroshenko, but the communications were later classified as a hoax, he said on Friday.
“Even though it really appeared to be Mr. Poroshenko in the video, after the conversation, the secretary for international relations became suspicious,” the office said in a statement.
“The department has now investigated and confirmed that it was not true and that the messages and video call were a hoax.”
The report did not detail what was discussed, other than to say the author asked Cameron for other contact details.
The secretariat said Cameron was making the fraud public “to ensure others are aware of the risk if the video with the foreign secretary is manipulated and later used”.
“While he regrets his mistake, the Secretary of International Relations believes it is important to condemn this behavior and step up efforts to combat the use of disinformation,” he said.
The United Kingdom, which will hold a national election on July 4, has not said who is responsible for the fraud.
Cameron is not the country's first foreign minister to fall for the hoax. In 2018, Boris Johnson debated international relations and poetry with a dummy pretending to be the Armenian prime minister. In 2022, the United Kingdom accused Russia of inviting two ministers and a third.
