Hackers hit Ukraine's air raid app with fake radiation alert for Kyiv, then Russia's emergency app is attacked
Ukraine's official air raid alert app was apparently hacked on Sunday night and briefly told users that Kyiv faced a radiation threat, followed by fake warnings of a chemical attack and street fighting in the capital. A few hours later, Russia's emergencies ministry said its own app had been hit by "a massive cyberattack" that sent false information to the public. The attacks came minutes before a local ceasefire in the Kherson region expired.
The fake alerts started at about 22:47 Kyiv time (20:47 GMT), with red-level air raid warnings apparently issued across the whole country. A message for Kyiv read "Radiation threat declared in Kyiv". One minute later a text in Russian said a nuclear alert would be declared across Ukraine and joked that "it's Oreshnik flying", a reference to Russia's new intermediate-range missile. Two more messages followed at 22:49, warning of a chemical attack and of "street fighting" in Kyiv and telling people not to go outside. All-clear notices for each warning arrived at 23:53.
"The Air Alarm application has probably been subjected to hostile interference. There is no radiation threat! Stay calm," Ukraine's Air Force said on Telegram. The Ministry of Digital Transformation, which supports the app, took it offline for maintenance and urged people to switch on the emergency notifications on their phones, listen for sirens and follow only official sources. In the Lviv region, the false radiation signal was also played through public loudspeakers. Regional governors in Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia said there was no threat, and Vinnytsia's head warned people not to click a link in the message, which could be a phishing attempt.
Hours later, Russia's emergencies ministry said its app had suffered "a massive cyberattack" which sent "fake information to the public", without giving details. Ukrainian outlet UNN reported that Russians received fake nuclear-threat alerts, and Atesh, a pro-Ukrainian partisan group active in Russian-held territory, claimed responsibility and posted a screenshot telling users to stock up on food for three weeks and hide in basements; the BBC could not verify it.
The hacks came just before 23:00 on Sunday, when a localised ceasefire in the front-line Kherson region ended. The truce, in force since last Tuesday, had allowed civilians to leave the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, while fighting continued elsewhere. Russian strikes also cut power to thousands of people in Ukraine, the BBC reported.