Hackers Send False Nuclear Alerts Through Ukrainian and Russian Emergency Apps

Emergency alert apps in both Ukraine and Russia were hit by cyberattacks over about a day, sending false warnings of nuclear and other threats to users, authorities in both countries said. According to ABC News, it is not clear whether the two attacks were related.

Ukraine said its air alert service was running again after being suspended. Russia said efforts to restore its Emergency Situations Ministry app were still under way on Monday.

What the false alerts said

In Ukraine, users of the Air Alert app received fake notices late Sunday, just after 10 p.m. local time, according to Al Jazeera. The messages claimed high radiation levels, a chemical threat and public disturbances in Kyiv, ABC News reported. Al Jazeera said users were also warned of possible street combat and of the deployment of Russia's Oreshnik missile.

ABC News said the messages were written in English with spelling and grammar errors, and in a mix of Russian and Ukrainian. One Russian-language message told users not to worry because an Oreshnik was incoming.

Ukraine's air raid alert channel said on Telegram that unauthorized parties had interfered with the app. It told users not to click links in suspicious notifications. The Ukrainian Air Force said there was no radiation threat.

In Russia, the ministry said hackers used its app to send a false alert to 33 of the country's 89 regions at about 2:45 a.m. Moscow time on Monday, according to ABC News. Al Jazeera said the ministry described a massive cyberattack that wrongly warned of imminent drone attacks. Media reports cited by Al Jazeera said the messages claimed nuclear warheads on Ukrainian drones had been launched at all regions, and told people to stock up on food for three weeks and hide.

Who is blamed, and what is unverified

Accounts differ on attribution. Al Jazeera said Ukraine's Center for Strategic Communications blamed Russia, pointing to the use of Russian in one of the fake messages. Russia's ministry did not name a suspect, ABC News reported.

A Russian Telegram channel said a hacking group called Hitcore had claimed responsibility for the breach of the Ukrainian system. ABC News said this could not be independently verified, and the identities and motives of the purported hackers remain unclear.

Why it matters for people who rely on the apps

Ukrainians use the app to find shelter during daily Russian missile and drone strikes, ABC News reported, so false alarms carry practical risks. Ukraine's state-run Center for Countering Disinformation urged people to follow other emergency channels on social media and to rely on physical alerts while the problem was fixed.

Officials said the damage appeared limited. Yurii Ihnat, a spokesman for Ukraine's air force command, said the attack did not affect security and defense operations because the app is separate from military command systems. He said the air force keeps reporting threats in real time through independent channels. Al Jazeera's reporter in Kyiv said most people there understood within about half an hour that it was a hacking attack. She also said speakers in the city center sounded warnings. Ukraine said a separate app for the capital was working normally.

Russia's ministry said the wider public alert system was operating normally through SMS messages, media broadcasts and municipal sirens and loudspeakers.

The false claims drew on a sensitive subject. Al Jazeera noted that Ukraine suffered the 1986 Chornobyl disaster and that fighting around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has raised fears of another accident.

A first for official alert apps, but not for cyberwarfare

Al Jazeera said this appears to be the first time either country's official alert app has been hacked. It noted that cyberattacks have long been part of the conflict. It cited Russian attacks on Ukrainian government and banking sites in January 2022, and a late 2023 attack by the group Sandworm that took the Kyivstar telecom network offline and disrupted notifications for days. It also said the volunteer IT Army of Ukraine has reportedly targeted the Moscow Stock Exchange, Russian power grids and government websites.

The timing and what comes next

The attacks came as a localized humanitarian ceasefire around the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky expired at midnight at the start of Monday. ABC News said the truce began Oct. 27 and was the most significant between Kyiv and Moscow since the full-scale invasion. The White House said first lady Melania Trump helped broker it. About 2,000 civilians were in Oleshky when it began, ABC News reported.

Russia's ministry said it had identified the vulnerability the attackers exploited and was taking measures to prevent a repeat. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said all state agencies face constant cyber threats, including a growing number using artificial intelligence, and that they must improve their defenses. In his words, all government bodies must take steps to improve the cybersecurity of our digital resources.

Around Prague, based on reporting by ABC News, DW.com, Al Jazeera