Ukraine's air raid alert app hacked, air force says

Ukraine's air force said on Sunday that the nationwide air raid alert app had probably been hacked and was issuing warnings that did not match the situation on the ground, including a false radiation alert for Kyiv.

The alerts began at about 22:47 local time (20:47 GMT) with red-level air raid warnings issued across the country, the BBC reported. Users in the capital received a message reading: "Radiation threat. Radiation threat declared in Kyiv." A minute later a message in Russian said: "Hi! There will be a nuclear alert across Ukraine. Don't worry, it's Oreshnik flying". Further alerts at 22:49 warned of a chemical attack on Kyiv and of street fighting in the city, both telling people not to go outside. All-clear messages answering each of the Kyiv alerts arrived at 23:53.

The air force said in a message on its Telegram channel that the app had "probably been subjected to hostile interference" and that there was no radiation threat. Yuriy Ignat, a spokesperson for the air force, told the AFP news agency that the app had been hacked, answering "Yes, it has been" when asked, France 24 reported.

Ukraine's Centre for Countering Disinformation said the information carried by the app did not correspond to reality. It advised people to switch on emergency notifications on their phones, listen for sirens and read only official sources. SPRAVDI, the centre for strategic communications, blamed Russia for the interference in a post on X, France 24 reported.

Regional officials reported the same pattern. Svitlana Onyshchuk, governor of Ivano-Frankivsk region, said on Telegram that everything was calm in the region for now, after the app showed a red-level alert there between 22:50 and 23:57. Natalya Zabolotna, governor of Vinnytsia region, said the app had been hit by a cyberattack and warned people not to click a link in the message, which she said could be a phishing attempt.

The Ukrainian Central Intelligence Agency said a radiation hazard signal had been played over loudspeaker devices in Lviv region and that there was no danger of radiation, the BBC reported. The Ministry of Digital Transformation, which supports the app, said it had been temporarily disabled for maintenance after it was apparently compromised.

Hours later, Russia's ministry of emergency situations said its own app had been subjected to "a massive cyberattack" that sent "fake information to the public". The ministry gave no further details. The Ukrainian news outlet UNN reported that the hack inside Russia pushed fake nuclear threat alerts, and that Atesh, a partisan group operating in Russian-held territory, had claimed responsibility. The BBC said it had not verified a screenshot published by Atesh that told users to stock provisions for three weeks and take cover in basements.

The alerts came minutes before a localised ceasefire in the Kherson region expired at 23:00 on Sunday. The truce, the longest of the war, allowed civilians to leave the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky while fighting continued elsewhere, France 24 reported. Kyiv city authorities said a separate app used for the capital was still working normally.