The Defence Secretary has hit out at Russian "dirty tricks" after receiving a phonecall from an “imposter” claiming to be the Ukrainian Prime Minister.
Mr Wallace revealed on social media that he had been contacted by someone asking “misleading questions” and pretending to be Denys Shmyhal.
The Home Secretary Priti Patel later said she too had been contacted by fraudsters, saying: "This also happened to me earlier this week. Pathetic attempt at such difficult times to divide us. We stand with Ukraine."
Mr Wallace said it was a “desperate attempt” to distract from Vladimir Putin’s abuses in Ukraine, and said: "Today an attempt was made by an imposter claiming to be Ukrainian PM to speak with me.
"He posed several misleading questions and after becoming suspicious I terminated the call.
"No amount of Russian disinformation, distortion and dirty tricks can distract from Russia's human rights abuses and illegal invasion of Ukraine. A desperate attempt.”
An MoD source later confirmed Mr Wallace had ordered an inquiry into how the impersonator was able to get through to him.
Earlier today the Defence Secretary confirmed the UK would deploy weapons and soldiers to Poland to help protect the country from Russian attacks.
He said the UK would deploy a a medium-range missile system and 100 personnel to Poland to “protect her airspace from any further aggression by Russia”.
Speaking on a visit to Warsaw, Mr Wallace said Poland – which is taking the brunt of refugees fleeing Ukraine after the country’s invasion by Russia – is a “very old ally”.
He added: “It is very right that Britain stands by Poland as Poland carries much of the burden of the consequence of this war and stands tall and brave to stand up to the threats from Russia.”
The announcement comes as Nato pledged to send more troops to defend its eastern flank, and just days after Russian missiles struck a military base in Yavoriv, Ukraine, a few miles from the border with Poland.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel