Ukraine's air raid alert app was apparently hacked on Sunday, briefly sending false warnings of radiation, nuclear, chemical and street-fighting threats to users across the country, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
The fake alerts began at approximately 22:47 local time and included messages in Ukrainian and Russian. One stated "Radiation threat. Radiation threat declared in Kyiv." Another, in Russian, said "Hi! There will be a nuclear alert across Ukraine. Don't worry, it's Oreshnik flying." A third warned of a chemical attack threat in Kyiv. All-clear messages were sent around 23:53.
The Ukrainian Central Intelligence Agency said the app had experienced "a failure" and urged the public to use other sources of information. The Ministry of Digital Transformation temporarily disabled the app after it "apparently been compromised" and asked residents to enable emergency notifications on their phones instead.
Regional leaders across Ukraine confirmed on Telegram that no actual threats existed. Svitlana Onyshchuk, governor of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, said "Everything is calm in the region for now." Natalya Zabolotna, the Vinnytsia regional head, warned residents not to click links in the messages, which could be phishing attempts.
Hours later, Russia's ministry of emergency situations said its own emergency app had been hit with "a massive cyberattack" that sent "fake information to the public." Ukrainian news outlet UNN reported the Russian app received false nuclear threat alerts.
Atesh, a partisan Ukrainian group operating in Russian-held territory, claimed responsibility on Telegram for hacking the Russian app and posted a purported screenshot of an emergency alert telling users to stock provisions for three weeks and take shelter in basements.