How Russia Faked Capturing UK Officers With AI

The AI-generated image that Russian sources used to illustrate the captured “high-ranking British officers”. (Photo: open source)

In a blatant example of modern disinformation, Russian state media has been caught spreading a fabricated story about the capture of two high-ranking British officers in Ukraine, using a crudely made AI-generated image as its primary evidence.

Russia's State Media Pushes False Capture Claim

The state-run news agency TASS recently circulated a story claiming that Russian special forces had captured two British officers, identified as Colonel Edward Blake and Colonel Richard Carroll. However, this claim was swiftly and thoroughly debunked as a fabrication by fact-checkers from The Insider on August 8.

Tracing the Disinformation Trail

The false narrative didn't originate from a credible military or intelligence source. Instead, its roots were traced back to a chain of fringe and unreliable outlets. The claim first appeared on Steigan, a blog run by Norwegian writer Pål Steigan, who deleted the post shortly after it went live. Steigan's source was an obscure article on a British cybersecurity company's website with negligible web traffic.

The author of that original piece was identified as Hal Turner, an American fringe blogger known for his history of racist rhetoric, Holocaust denial, and spreading baseless conspiracy theories. Turner's lack of credibility is underscored by a 2010 conviction for threatening federal judges, making him an unreliable source for any legitimate news.

The AI-Generated "Proof"

On August 4, the Russian outlet EADaily amplified the story by publishing a photograph of the supposed British officers. This image, meant to serve as proof, quickly unraveled under scrutiny. Expert analysis revealed clear signs of manipulation by generative AI:

• Garbled Text: The text on the UK passports held by the men was nonsensical and distorted, a classic giveaway of AI image generation.
• Unnatural Lighting: The scene was illuminated with an unnaturally even light, creating a flat, artificial look devoid of real-world shadows and depth.
• Inaccurate Uniforms: The military attire worn by the men only vaguely resembled official British uniforms.

After these flaws were publicly highlighted by the UK Defence Journal, EADaily attempted to hide the evidence by cropping the passports out of the image. However, the other artificial elements remained.

A Persistent Propaganda Effort

Despite the mountain of evidence proving the story was false—including the fact that no official records exist for a "Colonel Blake" or "Colonel Carroll"—Russia's state agency TASS ran the story anyway on August 6. The agency cited the same deleted post from the Steigan blog and a pro-Russian group to claim the officers were captured while preparing a sabotage mission.

This incident is part of a larger pattern of disinformation. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) previously fabricated a story about a secret meeting in the Alps to replace Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. According to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR), these efforts are part of a coordinated disinformation campaign designed to destabilize Ukraine.