A Night of False Alerts: How Ukraine’s Air Raid App Apparently Was Hacked

Ukraine’s air raid alert app was apparently hacked on Sunday night, sending false warnings of radiation and chemical threats in Kyiv, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Hours later, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said its own mobile app had suffered a massive cyberattack that spread false information, according to the BBC and Al Jazeera.

Ukrainian officials told residents there was no radiation threat and urged them to rely on official sources while the app was taken offline.

How the night unfolded

The BBC gave these times, all local, for Sunday, Nov. 1:

• 22:47: Alerts began, with red-level air raid warnings apparently issued nationwide and a radiation threat declared for Kyiv.
• 22:48: A message in Russian claimed a nuclear alert across Ukraine because an Oreshnik missile was in flight.
• 22:49: Further alerts warned of a chemical attack on Kyiv and of street fighting in the capital, telling people to stay indoors.
• 22:50 to 23:57: The app showed a red-level alert for the Ivano-Frankivsk region, whose governor said everything was calm.
• 23:00: A localized cease-fire in the Kherson region, which began last Tuesday, officially ended.
• 23:53: All-clear messages arrived, one for each earlier Kyiv alert.
• Early Monday: Russia’s Emergencies Ministry reported the cyberattack on its app.

What officials and groups said

The Air Force posted on Telegram that the app had probably been subjected to hostile interference. The Ministry of Digital Transformation, which supports the app, said it was temporarily disabled for maintenance after apparently being compromised. Fox News reported that the public alert map also showed Kyiv and other areas under a nuclear alert, and that loudspeakers in the streets played a recorded message urging precautions. The BBC reported that a radiation signal also sounded on loudspeakers in the Lviv region, and Ukraine’s Central Intelligence Agency said there was no such threat.

Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications, known as SPRAVDI, blamed Russia, according to Fox News and Al Jazeera. Fox News said no group had publicly claimed responsibility. The BBC reported that Atesh, a Ukrainian partisan group operating in Russian-held territory, said on Telegram that the app was hacked and published a screenshot of a purported alert, which the BBC could not verify. The Ukrainian outlet UNN reported that false warnings of nuclear strikes were also sent to users inside Russia. The Russian ministry did not say who was behind the attack on its app.

Why it matters for people in Ukraine

The app is used across Ukraine to warn people in real time of incoming Russian air attacks, Al Jazeera reported. A separate app for the capital kept working normally, according to Kyiv authorities.

The regional head of Vinnytsia, Natalya Zabolotna, warned residents not to click a link in one message because it could be a phishing attempt, the BBC reported. Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation advised people to turn on smartphone notifications, listen for sirens and read only official sources. The Digital Transformation Ministry urged residents to enable their phones’ emergency notifications so they can still receive state-issued alerts.

What happens next

The alerts came just minutes before the end of the Kherson cease-fire, which Al Jazeera described as the longest localized truce of the war so far.

Around Prague, based on reporting by BBC News, Fox News, Al Jazeera