Ukraine thwarts Russian pranksters’ “PM Shmyhal deep-fake” call with Baykar chief

Ukraine’s defense intelligence has foiled a provocation call to Türkiye's Baykar chief Haluk Bayraktar, which involved deep fake technology.

The perpetrators were posing as Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal of Ukraine, Ukrinform reports, referring to the agency’s press service.

Russian special services are trying to master deep-fake technology. It is based on artificial intelligence and allows creating fake videos where famous persons seem to say things that are not characteristic of them.

This time, the Russians tried to reach out to one of the founders of the Bayraktar drone producer.

Instead of the expected conversation with Haluk Bayraktar, the Russians were confronted by an intelligence operative who in turn posed as Bayraktar’s press secretary, and eventually trolled them back by asking "What happened to the Crimean bridge?"

The report says the Russians exposed themselves, in turn, by mispronouncing a Ukrainian phrase.

The purpose of this attempt, the intelligence agency believes, was to discredit cooperation between Ukraine and Türkiye.

As reported, Türkiye's Baykar intends to build in Ukraine a factory for the production of Bayraktar TB2 strike UAVs and to start producing at Ukraine’s capacities the Bayraktar Akıncı and Bayraktar Kizilelma models.