Ukraine and Russia both said their emergency alert apps were hacked overnight on Sunday, sending false warnings to citizens about air raids and chemical and nuclear attacks. The alerts coincided with the expiry of a six-day local ceasefire in southern Ukraine brokered by US first lady Melania Trump, the longest such pause since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion.
Ukraine’s public air raid app began sending false alerts just before 11 p.m. for Kyiv and other areas, warning of radiation and chemical attacks and street combat. One claimed Russia had launched a nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile. Ukraine’s air force said the system appeared to have been hacked by Russia, noting the alerts were in Russian, while official Ukrainian communications must be in Ukrainian. All-clear messages followed, and the app was temporarily suspended while sirens kept working.
Hours later, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said its own app had been hit, according to TASS. Pro-Ukrainian hacking group Atesh posted a screenshot of the alert. The fake message reportedly told Russians that nuclear warheads had been launched at all regions. The ministry described the app as a supplementary channel. Reuters could not verify who was responsible.
Source: Reuters, TASS
So What
Russia was most likely behind the hack in Ukraine, given the Russian-language alerts and the timing around the ceasefire’s expiry, though attribution remains unconfirmed. The hack in Russia came hours later, which suggests Ukraine was possibly conducting a retaliatory cyber operation, either directly or through aligned hackers. Activist hackers acting alone cannot be ruled out on either side. Either way, each false alarm likely erodes trust in the next real one, which matters in a country critically short of Patriot interceptors.
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