US Senator falls victim to a diplomatic call from Kuleba
Kyiv • UNN
Senator Ben Cardin received a video call from fake Dmytro Kuleba via Zoom. Suspicions arose when “Kuleba” began asking politically charged questions and demanding an opinion on sensitive foreign policy issues.
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin received a video call allegedly from former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, which turned out to be a diplomatic prank call. This is reported by The New York Times with reference to a warning sent by Senate security officials to lawmakers' offices by email, UNN reports.
Details
Reportedly, the person with whom the senator communicated via Zoom looked like Kuleba and spoke like him.
But Cardin became suspicious when the person posing as Kuleba began to behave inappropriately, asking “politically charged questions in connection with the upcoming elections.” The fake Kuleba also demanded to express his opinion on sensitive foreign policy issues, such as whether the senator supported the firing of long-range missiles at Russian territory.
The senator interrupted the call and reported it to the State Department, which confirmed that he was not talking to Kuleba.
Although the Senate security service's email did not specify that Cardin was the senator, two Senate staffers familiar with the matter confirmed that he was the one in question, the newspaper writes.
Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland, also partially confirmed the incident in a statement on Wednesday evening. In it, he acknowledged that “in recent days, a malicious actor made a deceptive attempt to speak to me, posing as a well-known person.” Cardin did not say that this person was Kuleba and made no reference to Ukraine.
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