Deepfake “Poroshenko” Tricks Former Polish Leader in Zoom Hoax Orchestrated by Russia

Former Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski said he unknowingly joined a Zoom call with impostors posing as ex-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, describing the episode as a Russian operation revealed only after the fact, according to Onet on October 20.

Speaking at the Catholic University of Lublin, Kwaśniewski said the approach came “a year or two ago” via people claiming to be from Poroshenko’s office, and he agreed to the online meeting.

“I open the screen—I see Poroshenko, in a field-style uniform. We spoke partly in English, partly in Russian. In the end he says: ‘Let’s talk in the language of the aggressor,’ so we spoke in Russian,”

Kwaśniewski recounted. He added: “With hand on heart, on the screen I saw Poroshenko, I heard Poroshenko; it was his voice,” before later learning “it was an organized fake by the Russians.”

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Kwaśniewski noted that Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski was similarly drawn into a call framed as a conversation with Poroshenko. Russian pranksters widely known as “Vovan and Lexus”.

Kwaśniewski framed the experience as a cautionary tale about synthetic media and social-engineering risks. “If I can be fooled like this, what does that say about voters around the world?” he said, urging politicians, journalists, and lawmakers to harden verification practices for remote engagements.

Earlier, it was reported that Russia uses AI to generate lifelike videos of fallen soldiers as part of a propaganda push that glorifies war deaths and spreads across Telegram and VKontakte.

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