Ukraine says air-alert app hacked, sent false nuclear and chemical warnings

Ukraine's air force said its Air Alert smartphone app, used to warn civilians of air strikes, was probably hacked on Sunday night, after it sent a string of false warnings about radiation, a chemical attack and street fighting in Kyiv. "The air alert app appears to have been subjected to enemy influence. There is no radiation threat!" the air force said on Telegram, urging people to stay calm.

The false alerts began at around 10.47pm local time, according to the BBC, with messages warning of a "radiation threat" in Kyiv, a nationwide "nuclear alert" referencing Russia's Oreshnik missile, a chemical-attack warning and a claim of street fighting in the capital. Air-raid sirens also sounded in some regions, including the western Zakarpattia region, and the app's threat map briefly showed a red alert across the whole of Ukraine, Rzeczpospolita reported.

Ukraine's air force spokesman, Yuriy Ignat, confirmed the app had been hacked, according to La Stampa. Kyiv's city administration said a separate app, Kyiv Digital, and the public siren system were working normally and could be used to check real alerts, while Ukraine's interior ministry urged people not to click links in the warning app or share unverified information. Vinnytsia region governor Natalia Zabolotna gave residents the same warning.

Hours later, in the early hours of Monday, Russia's emergencies ministry said its own warning app had suffered a "massive cyberattack" that let attackers send false information to the public, the state news agency Tass reported. The ministry did not say who it suspected was behind the attack, and its website was briefly unreachable; Russian officials said the wider public alert system was not affected, according to the Daily Mail.

Ukraine's Centre for Strategic Communications blamed Russia for the hack on its own app, though no group had publicly claimed responsibility by Monday morning, and the exact circumstances had not been established, Mediafax reported. The hacks came within hours of the end of the week-long Oleshky ceasefire in Kherson region, the longest pause in fighting of the war, though no link between the two events has been confirmed.