Ukraine and Russia said their emergency alert apps were hacked overnight and pushed false warnings of air raids and chemical and nuclear attacks to civilians’ phones, briefly flooding alert feeds with claims that officials later said were untrue.
Ukraine’s public air-raid app began issuing the false notices just before 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Sunday for Kyiv and other areas. Messages warned of radiation and chemical attack risks and, in some places, street fighting. One alarm claimed Russia had fired a hypersonic Oreshnik missile — a weapon described as able to carry a nuclear warhead — and that a nuclear alert had been declared.
What Ukraine said and did
Ukraine’s air force wrote on Telegram soon afterwards that the alert system appeared to have been hacked by Russia. It pointed out that the warnings were broadcast in Russian, while Ukrainian is required for official communications. “The air alert app appears to have been subjected to enemy influence,” the air force said. “There is no radiation threat! Stay calm and follow our updates on our channel!”
All-clear notices followed each false alert. The Ministry for Digital Transformation said the app had been temporarily suspended. Other ways of warning the public, including air-raid sirens, remained in use.
On Kyiv’s streets, some residents said the scare did not spark wide panic. Businessman Artem Pyndyk, 37, said he was briefly surprised, then grasped what had happened. “This didn’t trigger the kind of reaction in society that they expected,” he said, while noting that whoever broke in had still gained access to the programme. Pizzeria worker Oksana Vostrykova, 48, said she stayed calm and “kind of immediately understood that it might be a false message,” worrying more for children nearby than for herself.
Russia’s Emergencies Ministry app
Hours later, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry in Moscow said its own mobile app had also been hit by a cyberattack that sent fake public warnings. The ministry played down the breach, saying the app was not a main official warning channel but a supplementary source. It said specialists were restoring normal service and urged people to rely on the ministry’s website and official social media accounts.
Atesh, a pro-Ukrainian hacking group, posted a screenshot of an alert seen in Russia early on Monday and wrote that the Ministry of Emergency Situations app had been hacked. A fake message linked to the incident did not look like a formal official notice: it used informal and abusive language, called Russian regions “swamps,” claimed nuclear warheads had been launched against all Russian regions, and told people to store three weeks of food and shelter in cellars.
Responsibility for the paired breaches has not been independently confirmed. Ukraine’s air force blamed Russia for its incident; Atesh claimed credit for the Russian app breach. In the almost five-year war, previous cyber incidents have been tied by experts to activist hackers and to intelligence services on both sides.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- Sunday, just before 11 p.m. (2100 GMT): Ukraine’s air-raid app starts false alerts for Kyiv and other areas, including radiation, chemical and street-combat warnings.
- Sunday night, shortly after: Ukraine’s air force says the system appears hacked, denies any radiation threat, and notes alerts in Russian; all-clears follow and the Digital Transformation Ministry suspends the app.
- Hours later the same night: Russia’s Emergencies Ministry says its mobile app was cyberattacked and fake warnings were sent.
- Early Monday: Atesh posts a screenshot of a Russian-side alert and claims the Emergencies Ministry app was hacked.
- Same period: the overnight scare coincides with the end of a six-day local ceasefire in a small area of southern Ukraine around Oleshky, arranged with the involvement of US first lady Melania Trump — described as the longest such pause since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Why the timing matters
The false alerts landed as that local humanitarian pause expired. Separately, Ukraine continues to face pressure on air defence; US-made Patriot interceptors are described as its main shield against Russian ballistic missiles, and Washington on Friday announced a $2.1 billion deal for 500 Patriots, though people briefed on the decision said delivery could take years. The emergency app hack news does not change those supply timelines, but it shows how digital warning tools can be turned into instruments of fear even when physical sirens still work.
For readers following Ukraine Russia air raid alerts from afar, the core verified fact is narrower: both governments say their emergency apps were compromised, the nuclear and chemical claims were false, Ukraine paused its app while keeping other channels open, and Moscow said its app was secondary and being fixed.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Ukraine aur Russia ke emergency alert apps hack ho gaye, jin se jhoote nuclear aur chemical khatre ke messages gaye. Ukraine ne kaha radiation ka koi khatra nahi, app band ki, lekin sirens chal rahi thin. Russia ne bhi kaha uska app hit hua, magar yeh uska asali warning channel nahi. Logo ko sirf official websites aur accounts par bharosa rakhna chahiye.
