Ministers have been warned to brace for more videos to emerge after a “prank” call with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace surfaced in the wake of Britain blaming Vladimir Putin’s Russia for attempted hoaxes.

Downing Street accused the Kremlin of being behind the efforts to secure sensitive or embarrassing information in calls ahead of footage being published on Monday evening.

In the video call, Mr Wallace was seen speaking to the imposter who was disguised as the Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal.

Mr Wallace is shown speaking from Poland as the caller says Ukraine wants to progress a “nuclear programme” to protect itself from Moscow – a claim Russian state media has baselessly made in the past.

As the call was published, Mr Wallace suggested the invasion of Ukraine “must be going so badly for the Kremlin” if it was resorting to “video fakes”.

A Ministry of Defence source said the video was “garbage”, adding: “It’s a doctored clip.

“What you don’t hear is the Defence Secretary also saying that the UK can’t have anything to do with alleged Ukrainian nuclear ambitions, because the UK is committed to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.”

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Mr Wallace did not appear to say anything particularly embarrassing or sensitive in the video, but it did tout a “full interview” within “a few days”.

Several hoaxes, condemned by the defence secretary as “dirty tricks” have emerged recently, targeting government ministers.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has also acknowledged having spoken to imposters, while an unsuccessful attempt targeted Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.

An “official teaser” of the call with the defence minister appeared on a YouTube page, claiming it was a “video-prank” with “Vovan and Lexus”, a duo previously attributed to a hoax aimed at the Duke of Sussex.

Critics have accused the pair, real names Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, of having links to Russian security services, something they deny.

Sky News understands officials were lobbying YouTube to remove the video of Mr Wallace from the platform.

Mr Wallace publicly acknowledged he had been targeted shortly after his call on Thursday in an attempt to get ahead of any attempt by Moscow to circulate footage from it.

He also launched a cross-Whitehall investigation to understand how he ended up on the video call.

Downing Street have urged people not to share video clips of the calls.

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