Videos released after Ben Wallace targeted by Russian pranksters

Videos have been released showing Defence Secretary Ben Wallace discussing lethal aid with Russian pranksters who fooled him into thinking he was speaking to the Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

Pranksters known as Vovan and Lexus apparently tricked Mr Wallace and his team into a video conference in which both nuclear weapons and anti-tank missiles appear to be discussed.

The Ministry of Defence has dismissed the video as Russian propaganda being "fed out to obscure and manipulate the truth" and urged people to be "very sceptical" about accepting the "doctored" content as real.

Mr Wallace, who previously said Russian "dirty tricks" were to blame for the call taking place, reacted to the first video being posted on YouTube by saying it showed the Kremlin was low on confidence.

He wrote on Twitter: "Things must be going so badly for the Kremlin that they are now resorting to pranks and video fakes. Not the actions of a confident government."

The Russians - who have previously fooled celebrities including Elton John, Prince Harry and Bernie Sanders, released short clips of the conversation, which a Ministry of Defence source says have been doctored.

Home Secretary Priti Patel could also be bracing for a video to be released after revealing she had also been targeted last week.

In a video released on Tuesday, Mr Wallace is shown in Poland discussing NLAWs - anti-tank weapons - with the pranksters saying ones provided by the UK had often failed, a claim Mr Wallace denies.

The defence secretary appears to say in the call the UK is sending more NLAWs to Ukraine, adding "we're running out of our own".

The MoD appeared to address that comment on Twitter, saying the UK "has enough weapons systems to defend both UK national security and maintain our commitments to Nato".

In the first video, released on Monday, as the caller says Ukraine wants to progress a "nuclear programme" to protect itself from Moscow, a claim Russian state media has baselessly claimed in the past.

A Ministry of Defence source said the video was "garbage", adding: "It's a doctored clip.

"What you don't hear is the defence secretary also saying that the UK can't have anything to do with alleged Ukrainian nuclear ambitions, because the UK is committed to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons."

Mr Wallace publicly acknowledged he had been targeted shortly after his call on Thursday in an attempt to get ahead of any attempt by Moscow to circulate footage from it.

He said he'd terminated the call after becoming suspicious about a number of misleading questions, however the pranksters on their YouTube page said the call lasted 22 minutes and "did not end abruptly, but on a benevolent mutual farewell".

Mr Wallace launched a cross-Whitehall investigation to understand how he ended up on the video call.

Downing Street said it was an attempt by Vladimir Putin's regime to distract from military problems in Ukraine, with intelligence officials saying the invasion so far is not going according to plan.

“This is standard practice for Russian information operations and disinformation is a tactic straight from the Kremlin playbook to try to distract from their illegal activities in Ukraine and the human rights abuses being committed there.”