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Russia Claims It Caught Two UK Officers in Ukraine—“Proof” Is an AI Image
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
Russian state-run media TASS has circulated claims that Russian special forces captured two high-ranking British officers—identified as Colonels Edward Blake and Richard Carroll—in Ukraine, but fact-checkers from The Insider stated it’s a fabrication on August 8.
The claim originated with Steigan, a blog run by Norwegian writer Pål Steigan, who deleted the post the same day it went live. Steigan had cited an August 2 article on coreinsightsintl.com, a little-known website for a British cybersecurity company that recorded just 750 visits in July.
The author of that piece was Hal Turner, a fringe American blogger from New Jersey known for racist views, Holocaust denial, and a 2010 conviction for threatening federal judges.
Turner has previously pushed conspiracy theories about secret US–China land deals, “new” currencies replacing the dollar, and false claims about Ukraine using chemical weapons.
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On August 4, Russian outlet EADaily published a photo of the alleged British officers, each holding a UK passport.
Expert analysis found clear signs of generative AI manipulation. Text on the passports was garbled—a common giveaway for AI imagery—and the lighting was unnaturally even, giving the scene a flat, artificial look.
The UK Defense Journal highlighted these flaws, prompting EADaily to crop the passports out of the image. But other telltale signs remained, such as uniforms that only vaguely resembled British military attire.
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Despite the lack of evidence—and the fact that neither “Colonel Blake” nor “Colonel Carroll” appears in any official or independent records—Russian state agency TASS still ran the story on August 6, quoting the same deleted Steigan post.
The source TASS cited, an underground pro-Russian group called “Russian Kherson,” claimed that mercenaries from Britain and Latin America had been arriving in the Ukrainian cities of Mykolaiv and Kherson. TASS then repeated Steigan’s deleted claim that the two British officers were captured while preparing a sabotage operation against Russia.
Earlier, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) had claimed that a secret meeting to discuss replacing Ukraine’s President took place in the Alps, involving senior Ukrainian officials and Western representatives.
According to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR), the allegation is a disinformation campaign aimed at destabilizing the country.
