According to the website, one of the provocateurs posed as Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council. They also released an audio recording in which Matulionis—if it was indeed him—speaks with his interlocutor in English, but the conversation is dubbed in Russian.
Allegedly, Matulionis and the provocateur posing as Umerov are discussing the topic of Ukrainian drones.
According to the website, the provocateurs asked what President Gitanas Nausėda thought about the Ukrainian drones that had violated Lithuanian airspace.
Matulionis presented his version
As the media reported that Russian provocateurs impersonated Ukrainian National Security Secretary Rustem Umerov and, by calling, deceived the President’s senior advisor Deividas Matulionis, who confirmed that he had participated in such a conversation but noted that he believed it was a professional provocation by Russian intelligence services.
The news portal Delfi reported on the audio recording posted on the Telegram channel of the provocateurs Vovan and Lexus.
„I can confirm that this is true, but I truly doubt, dear journalists, that this was an attempt by pranksters—in my personal opinion, it was an attempt by Russian intelligence services. (…) With my hand on my heart, I can say that I would find it strange if pranksters were to take such a serious topic and try to make a story out of it,“ Matulionis told reporters on Wednesday, adding that he had received the call in May.
According to him, this was an attempt to discredit the Baltic states and spread disinformation about them.
„Following the usual methodology—and just as was attempted when the situation was tense and the Ukrainians took serious action against legitimate targets on Russian territory—an attempt was made to discredit the Baltic states and spread certain false information about them,“ the presidential adviser added.
„Everything was done extremely professionally; apparently, an attempt was made to mimic Umerov’s voice using artificial intelligence (as reported by ELTA), because I know Umerov, I was almost convinced that I was speaking with Umerov, (…) we spoke,“ he stated.
According to Matulionis, the person impersonating Umerov also suggested that the presidential advisers of the Baltic states and Ukrainian representatives maintain regular contact and connect via Zoom; the call was then verified.
He stated that initially it was believed the phone number was correct, but later it was determined that only the last four digits were genuine.
According to the adviser, there have been increasingly frequent attempts to use Umerov’s identity as a cover to establish contact with various security officials in Europe; the Ukrainian official himself has made a public statement regarding this.
As reported, the Russian provocateurs claimed that the impostor spoke with Matulionis about Ukrainian drones.
According to the news portal, the provocateurs asked what President Gitanas Nausėda thought about the Ukrainian drones that had violated Lithuanian airspace.
ELTA notes that air alerts have been issued in Lithuania on multiple occasions recently due to drone threats.
Most recently, on May 21, an alert was issued in Utena County after two drones were reported entering the country’s territory that day. The day before, an air threat and a red alert level were declared in Vilnius County. This was the first such incident in the history of the restored state.
Similar incidents have recently been recorded in other Baltic countries as well. These incidents have intensified as Ukraine has stepped up its drone attacks on Russian infrastructure.