The mobile apps that warn civilians in Ukraine and Russia of incoming attacks were both hit by cyberattacks over the weekend, pushing false alerts — including warnings of a nuclear threat — to users in each country.
Ukraine was affected first. Users of its air-raid alert app, which is relied on across the country for real-time warnings of missile and drone attacks, received fake notifications of nuclear and chemical threats to areas in and around Kyiv, along with warnings of potential street combat, Al Jazeera reported on Monday. One erroneous message claimed Russia’s hypersonic Oreshnik missile had been deployed.
SPRAVDI, Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications, blamed Russia for the hack in a post on X.
Hours later, Moscow’s Emergencies Ministry said on Telegram early Monday that its own emergency notification app — which warns users of incoming drone attacks — had been hit by a cyberattack that led to the spread of “false information”.
Who was behind the Russian hack
Al Jazeera states that the Russian ministry did not say who was behind the cyberattack on its app.
This is worth flagging, because Hiru News reported on Monday, relaying unnamed foreign media, that a Ukrainian intelligence group was said to be responsible for sending fake warnings of an imminent nuclear strike inside Russia. Hiru’s account does not name the group or the outlet it is drawn from.
The two reports are not reconcilable on this point. This article follows Al Jazeera, which is reporting the ministry’s own statement directly: no attribution was made by Russia. Nothing in either filing establishes that the Ukrainian and Russian incidents were connected to each other.
What kept working
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said its broader public warning system continued to operate normally — sirens and loudspeakers, SMS messages, and television and radio broadcasts all remained functional, according to Hiru. The ministry said the attack on the mobile app had no effect on the operation of that wider system, and that specialists were working to restore the app to normal.
Context
The incidents follow the end of a localised ceasefire covering part of the Russian-occupied Kherson region. Al Jazeera reports that the truce began on Tuesday and ended on Sunday, making it the longest of the war so far.
The practical stake is straightforward. Both apps exist to give civilians minutes of warning before a strike, and both depend on users acting on an alert immediately. An attack that makes alerts untrustworthy degrades that system without destroying anything.
Not reported
Neither filing states how many users received the false alerts in either country, how long the fake notifications remained live before being withdrawn, whether either app has been fully restored, or whether Ukraine has said how its own app was compromised. Russia has not published a technical account of the intrusion.
