Ukraine and Russia both said on Sunday night that hackers had broken into air raid alert apps and pushed fake warnings to users, including of nuclear attack.
Ukraine’s widely used Air Alarm app sent red-level warnings nationwide, with some users in Kyiv and elsewhere also told of radiation, chemical attacks and street fighting. “There is no radiation threat! Stay calm,” the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram. The government temporarily disabled the app.
Hours later, Russia said one of its own alert apps had been hit by “a massive cyberattack” that sent “fake information to the public.” A purported screenshot shared by the Ukrainian partisan group Atesh, reported by the BBC, warned that Ukrainian drones carrying nuclear warheads had been launched at all regions of Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not address the breach directly but said Russian government sites are under “constant cyberattacks.” Russia’s emergencies ministry said the app would be fully restored by the end of Monday.
It was unclear who was behind the attacks or whether they were linked. The Ukrainian alerts went out minutes before the end of a local ceasefire in the Kherson region that had allowed civilians to evacuate Russian-occupied Oleshky.
Sources: BBC News, The Guardian
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