Ukraine Air Alert App Hacked, Sending False Radiation and Chemical Warnings

Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation temporarily disabled the Air Alert application after the platform was apparently compromised on Sunday. The digital failure caused the app to issue false red-level air raid alerts across the country. These erroneous notifications included specific claims of radiation, chemical, and street fighting threats in the capital, Kyiv.

The first problematic message appeared at 22:47 local time. It stated that a radiation threat had been declared in Kyiv. One minute later, a message in Russian told users that a nuclear alert was active and that the Oreshik missile was flying. A third alert at 22:49 warned of a chemical attack, while a fourth message at the same time claimed street fighting was occurring in the city.

The Ukrainian Air Force confirmed the app had likely suffered hostile interference. A Telegram message from the service instructed users that there was no radiation threat and urged them to stay calm. The Ukrainian Central Intelligence Agency reported a failure in the system and advised the public to use other information sources to verify air strike threats. The agency also noted that the radiation hazard signal played on loudspeakers in the Lviv region due to the app malfunction.

At 23:53, the app sent a series of all-clear messages to users. These notifications individually declared each of the previous Kyiv threats resolved. By this time, regional leaders had begun posting updates on social media to reassure residents. Svitlana Onyshchuk, the governor of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, stated that everything was calm in her region. The oblast had received a red-level alert between 22:50 and 23:57.

Natalya Zabolotna, the head of the Vinnytsia region, identified the incident as a cyber-attack. She warned residents not to click on links within the app messages, noting they could be phishing attempts. The Ministry of Digital Transformation advised citizens to enable emergency notifications on their smartphones to receive state-issued distress signals directly from the operating system.

Hours after the Ukrainian incident, Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that its own app faced a massive cyberattack. The ministry stated that fake information was sent to the public but provided no further details. The Ukrainian news outlet UNN reported that the hack included false alerts about a nuclear threat inside Russia.

Atesh, a Ukrainian partisan group operating in Russian-held territory, claimed responsibility for the intrusion on its Telegram page. The group posted a screenshot of an unverified emergency alert that told users to stock up on provisions for three weeks and take cover in basements. The message included obscene language. Atesh has been contacted for comment regarding the incident.

The digital disruption occurred just minutes before the end of a localised ceasefire in the Kherson region. That ceasefire, which began the previous Tuesday, officially expired at 23:00 Sunday. The truce was intended to allow civilians to evacuate the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, although fighting continued in other areas of the front line.