After last Tuesday’s missile strike in Poland, the country’s president, Andrzej Duda, spent over seven minutes on a call with what he believed was Emmanuel Macron but in fact turned out to be infamous Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus, who have fooled various world leaders (including Duda previously in 2020).
This morning, a recording of the call was posted online. Subsequently, Duda’s office released a statement noting that a hoax caller had reached the president, but without directly confirming or denying the veracity of the material published online.
W trakcie połączenia Prezydent @AndrzejDuda zorientował się po nietypowym sposobie prowadzenia rozmowy przez rozmówcę,że mogło dojść do próby oszustwa i zakończył rozmowę. Po tym połączeniu KPRP niezwłocznie podjęła we współpracy z odpowiednimi służbami działania wyjaśniające.2/2
— Kancelaria Prezydenta (@prezydentpl) November 22, 2022
In the recording, Duda can be heard thanking “Emmanuel” for the call and informing him that there was “no doubt” a missile had caused an explosion on Polish territory earlier that day.
However, he added that, while the missile was “Russian-produced” and had been “launched somewhere in the east…we don’t know by whom”. Later in the call, Duda noted that both Ukraine and Russia use Russian-produced missiles.
Duda also said that he had already spoken with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg – notifying him of the possibility that Poland may invoke Article 4 of the NATO Treaty in response to the incident – and with US President Joe Biden.
Duda’s office has previously confirmed that the call with Stoltenberg took place around 10 p.m. on the day of the missile strike and the one with Biden shortly afterwards.
The fake Macron then asked if Biden blamed Russia for the incident – to which Duda said “no” – and if it could have been caused by a Ukrainian missile – to which Duda responded “I don’t know”.
Duda did confirm, though, that Ukrainian president “Volodymyr [Zelensky] blames Russians, he said that they are absolutely sure that that was [a] Russian missile, launched by Russians, and there is no possibility that that was a missile launched by Ukrainians”.
“Emmanuel, believe me, I am extra careful, I don’t blame Russians,” continued Duda. “Emmanuel, this is war, and I think that both sides will accuse [each] other.”
Those comments confirm the public statements at the time by Poland, NATO and the US – who said that the origin of the missile was not known – and of Zelensky, who blamed it on Russia. Subsequent investigations have found that the strike was most likely caused by Ukraine’s air defence systems.
In the call, the fake Macron then told Duda that he did not want the incident to cause an escalation in tension between Russia and NATO.
“Emmanuel, do you think that I want to have war with Russia?” asked Duda. “No! Believe me, I don’t want to have war with Russia and believe me, I’m extra careful. Extra careful. I’m talking only about Article 4, not about Article 5.”
Article 4 – which Poland ended up not triggering – allows NATO members to “consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened”. Article 5, by contrast, requires members to take action in response to an armed attack against another.
Asked what he would do if the missile turned out to be Russian, Duda said “we will talk with our allies, with you, with President Biden, and I think that we will have to find a common solution”.
The fake Macron then asked what Duda thinks about the possible use of “dirty bombs” by Russia, to which the Polish president said he was more concerned about the threat to nuclear power stations in Ukraine.
In a statement issued after the recording went online, Duda’s office confirmed that, after the missile strike, he had received a call from a “person claiming to be French President Emmanuel Macron”.
“During the call, President Andrzej Duda realised from the unusual way the interlocutor conducted the conversation that there might have been a fraud attempt and ended the conversation,” continued the statement, which said the president’s chancellery was “undertaking explanatory actions” to ascertain how the caller got through.
The audio published online shows that, just over seven minutes into the call, after the fake Macron said that he was “tired of both” Biden and Zelensky, “especially Volodymyr”, Duda abruptly said “thank you, have a nice day” and the call ended.
The incident appears to be the second time that Duda has fallen victim to a call by Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus, who have often targeted figures critical of Russia. They have been accused of working with and on behalf of the Kremlin, though the pair deny it.
In July 2020, while campaigning for re-election, Duda was tricked by the duo into believing he was talking with UN Secretary General António Guterres. The previous year, Vovan and Lexus fooled Macron himself into believing that he was speaking with Zelensky.
Meanwhile, Russians impersonating Ukrainian president-elect Zelenskiy have prank-called the French president https://t.co/7YcYCHNbP4
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) April 25, 2019
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
