European leaders are “tired” of the war in Ukraine, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told two Russian pranksters in a call - thinking she was speaking with officials with the African Union, writes POLITICO.

Meloni informed the pair that “fatigue” with the war was coming to a head: “I see that there is a lot of fatigue, I have to say the truth, from all the sides. We [are] near the moment in which everybody understands that we need a way out”.

Audio of the call, which took place in September, was released online on Wednesday by Russian comedy duo, Vovan and Lexus, whose real names are Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov. They have been accused of acting as a “pro-Kremlin tool of information warfare” by targeting high-profile westerners who have spoken out against Moscow since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Meloni’s office said in a statement it “regretted” she was “deceived by an impostor” who passed himself off as the head of the executive of the African Union, a 55-member bloc. It explained that the call took place on September 18 in the lead-up to meetings with African leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.