Enlarge image
Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey
Photo: IMAGO / IMAGO/BildFunkMV
A telephone conversation between Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) and her Kiev counterpart Vitali Klitschko was scheduled for 5 p.m. this Friday.
The two spoke to each other on a large video screen, discussing the situation in Berlin, the Ukrainian refugees, and the cost of housing them.
What happened next was first reported by the Berlin Tagesspiegel, and SPIEGEL information confirms it: after a quarter of an hour, Giffey's phone call seemed strange.
The man looked like Klitschko (this is also shown by a photo of the video chat that SPIEGEL has and which has now also been tweeted), moved like him, spoke like him.
In fact, there was no reason to doubt that it couldn't be him.
Doubts at Giffey
But all of a sudden the conversation turned to social benefits that the Ukrainians in Germany allegedly obtained by stealth – the Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk allegedly spoke about this.
In addition, her interlocutor asked Giffey for support in bringing men back to Ukraine so that they could fight there.
The Berlin mayor became suspicious.
When the connection to the video call broke, Giffey had the Ukrainian ambassador in Kyiv inquire.
From there the information came: It wasn't Vitali Klitschko that she spoke to.
Soon after, the Berlin Senate Chancellery made the case public via Twitter: "There is a suspicion that the person who was spoken to was not Vitali Klitschko."
"To all appearances it was a deep fake," a spokeswoman for the mayor told SPIEGEL.
Giffey said via Twitter: "Unfortunately, it is part of the reality that the war is being waged by all means - including online, to undermine trust with digital methods and to discredit Ukraine's partners and allies." Giffey has now called the police .
cte/mgo