Fake nuclear alerts hack Ukraine and Russia emergency apps

Emergency alert apps in Ukraine and Russia were hacked on Sunday and Monday, sending false nuclear and chemical warnings to civilians before officials cleared the confusion within an hour.

Ukraine’s Air Force said the Air Alert app, which warns of air attacks, issued fake alerts of radiation threats around Kyiv and claimed Russia’s hypersonic Oreshnik missile had been deployed. The service described the incident as “enemy influence” and assured there was no radiation danger.

The Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communications blamed Russia, noting the use of Russian language in one of the messages. A separate Kyiv‑specific app continued to function normally.

In the early hours, speakers in central Kyiv sounded the warnings, but most residents understood within thirty minutes that the alerts were a cyber‑attack.

On Monday, Russia’s Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief reported a “massive cyberattack” on its warnings app, which mistakenly warned of imminent drone attacks and even claimed nuclear warheads on Ukrainian drones had been launched nationwide, urging people to stock up on food for three weeks and hide.

Both governments said the incidents were the first successful hacks of their official alert systems, highlighting the ongoing digital warfare that has intensified since Russia’s full‑scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Source: Al Jazeera. Photo: Markus Winkler / Pexels.