The Mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey had a short conversation with a person impersonating as the Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko over a video call until a doubt cropped up that the person on the other side was an impersonator. This report was confirmed by the Berlin Senate office on June 24.
The senate in their tweet mentioned that they had no hints that the then ongoing meeting over a video was not being attended by the actual Mayor of Kyiv and most evidently this incident is a deepfake. They further added that police have started their probe into the matter.
A representative of the Mayor of Berlin said that the initial 15 minutes of the video conference between the Mayor and the impersonator were entirely undistinguished.
She added further that the person posing as the Mayor of Kyiv questioned Giffey that how Berlin is carrying out with the emigrants from Ukraine, what is their capacity and how are they managing it. It was altogether a reasonable discussion that they were already expecting.
The suspicion began when the impersonator started to have a discussion on the matter of the Ukrainian emigrants seeking to gain communal advantages in Berlin. In fact, the person posing as Klitschko appealed to them they should start operations via the officials to assist the young men who are moving back to Ukraine to take part in the battle, she further added.
The spokeswoman said that the last topic related to gay rights was much more bizarre as the imposter requested them if Berlin could aid Kyiv to entertain something like a Christopher Street Day. This statement seemed very unusual in a war-like condition.
After this, the meeting was suspended, as per the office of Berlin’s Mayor. Subsequently, a departmental employee of the Mayor’s office wrote in a tweet that the ambassador of Ukraine has affirmed to Germany that the person to whom the Mayor of Berlin was talking wasn’t Kyiv’s Mayor.
Giffey expressed his concern over the matter saying that it is sad to see that the battle is being conducted with all means which comprise the internet too so that they can weaken the faith in digital methods and defame the associates of Ukraine.
The Mayor of Kyiv asserted that he believes to have a conversation with Berlin’s Mayor through authoritative means in the near future. He also said that he doesn’t need a person to translate the conversation as he has spent some years of his life in Germany.
