Berlin mayor Franziska Giffey spent 15 minutes on a scheduled video call with someone who looked like Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, until “he” asked about Ukrainian refugees supposedly scamming social benefits and for help sending young men back to fight. The Senate Chancellery tweeted that the course and topics of the conversation raised suspicion and the call was cut short. It saw no sign that it wasn’t a real person, called it an apparent deepfake and said the LKA’s state security unit was on it; Madrid’s mayor got a similar call but hung up quickly. The pixels passed, the agenda didn’t. Another hint: the impostor wanted to speak Russian through an interpreter; the real Klitschko lived in Germany for years and doesn’t need one. Days later, the Russian prank duo Vovan and Lexus told ARD’s Kontraste they were behind the calls, which also reached Vienna’s mayor Michael Ludwig. Duo member Alexei Stolyarov told Kontraste it wasn’t a deepfake, it had been “easy”. Journalist Daniel Laufer, who spoke to them, had already found they most likely spliced together existing Klitschko recordings.
