Ukraine air raid app sends false radiation warning in suspected hack

Ukraine’s air raid alert app sent false warnings of a radiation threat in Kyiv on Sunday evening, prompting the Ukrainian Air Force to warn of suspected hostile interference and tell residents there was no radiation danger.

The Ministry of Digital Transformation said the app had been temporarily disabled for maintenance after apparently being compromised. Officials urged people to use other official warning channels while the service was disrupted.

The incident affected a system used to notify people of the beginning and end of defence alerts during Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.

False warnings appeared within minutes

According to the BBC’s account of the messages, the alerts began at about 22:47 local time, with apparent red-level air raid warnings across Ukraine. A separate notification declared a radiation threat in Kyiv.

A Russian-language message followed at 22:48, referring to a nuclear alert across Ukraine. At 22:49, further messages claimed there was a chemical threat and street fighting in the capital, telling recipients not to go outside.

At 23:53, users received a series of all-clear notifications corresponding to each of the earlier Kyiv warnings.

The Air Force addressed the disruption on Telegram, saying: “The Air Alarm application has probably been subjected to hostile interference. There is no radiation threat! Stay calm and follow our updates on our channel.”

Ukraine’s intelligence authorities also reported a failure in the app and urged people to consult other sources to clarify air strike threats. They said a radiation warning had sounded through loudspeakers in the Lviv region because of the app, but that there was no radiation hazard.

Regional leaders also sought to reassure residents. Svitlana Onyshchuk, governor of Ivano-Frankivsk region, said the situation there was calm after the app displayed an alert.

Officials point residents to alternative warnings

The Ministry of Digital Transformation, which supports the Air Alert app, urged residents to enable emergency notifications on their smartphones so they could receive state-issued distress signals.

Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation advised people to pay attention to sirens and rely on official sources if the app was not working. For residents and visitors using the service, those were the alternative warning channels identified by officials during the disruption.

Vinnytsia regional head Natalya Zabolotna described the incident as a cyberattack and warned people not to click a link in the message, saying it could be a phishing attempt.

Russia reports a separate app attack

A few hours after the false Ukrainian alerts, Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said its own app had suffered a “massive cyberattack” that sent false information to the public.

The Ukrainian partisan group Atesh published a purported screenshot of a Russian emergency notification. The BBC said it had not verified the image, so its contents do not establish what Russian users received.

The Ukrainian Air Force’s description remained one of suspected interference. Its immediate message to the public was that the radiation warning was false and that people should follow official updates.