According to authorities, the official warning apps in Ukraine and Russia have been hacked. In the Ukrainian app “Air Alert”, false messages appeared late on Sunday evening, including a warning of radioactive radiation in the capital Kyiv. In the night to Monday, Russia then reported a massive cyberattack on its warning app. The compromise of the Ukrainian app was announced by the Ukrainian air force on Telegram; the Russian attack became known via the state news agency Tass and the civil protection ministry in Moscow.
The app “Air Alert” may have been compromised by the enemy, the Ukrainian air force declared on Sunday evening on Telegram. “The air alert app appears to have come under enemy influence,” the Ukrainian air force declared on Telegram. There was no danger from radiation. The application also displayed false warnings for Kyiv and other regions of a nuclear and chemical attack as well as the danger of street fighting. A faulty message about the use of the Russian Oreshnik-type hypersonic missile was also sent. The faulty displays disappeared again a short time later.
According to “Presse”, the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation announced that the app had been temporarily out of operation. However, other warning systems for the population as well as the air-raid sirens had continued to function. The news channel Al Jazeera reports, citing the Kyiv authorities, that a separate app specifically for the capital had worked normally. Accordingly, the Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communication (SPRAVDI) blamed Russia for the hack in a post on X.
According to media reports, warning sirens also sounded in some regions late on Sunday evening. The app is also said to have falsely warned of attacks with chemical weapons. The authorities called on citizens not to click on links in the warning app.
Moscow reports “false information” – without details on the perpetrators
In the night to Monday, the app of the Russian civil protection ministry was then hit. As Tass reported, citing the authority, the attackers succeeded in sending false information to the population. According to the report, the ministry did not provide any information on whom it suspected behind the attack. The authority’s warning website was initially temporarily unreachable during the night. However, the nationwide warning system itself was functioning normally, and the attack on the app had no influence on it, the ministry emphasised.
Whether the hacker attacks on the Ukrainian and the Russian app were connected was initially unclear, as “Presse” writes. The chronological sequence of events at least allowed the assumption that, after the attack on the Ukrainian system, it could have been a counterattack by Kyiv. The authorities did not provide evidence for this.
Warnings are everyday life – and a contested system
Air attacks and the necessary regional warnings of them have long been part of everyday life for people in Ukraine. During larger attacks on Kyiv, people often seek shelter in the subway stations. The apps send urgent warnings to residents’ smartphones during enemy air attacks. If such a system fails or spreads false reports, it directly affects millions of users.
Russia has been massively attacking the smaller neighbouring country Ukraine from the air, on the ground and at sea for almost five years. Cyberattacks also occur, although they make headlines far less often. Ukraine, for its part, repeatedly attacks targets in Russia far behind the front line in order to make it harder for President Vladimir Putin to continue his war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky once again defended the attacks, including on refineries in Russia. His country had to respond when Russia attacks energy infrastructure targets and kills people in Ukraine, he said in a conversation with the US broadcaster Fox News. The government of US President Donald Trump had asked Ukraine, in view of high diesel prices, to stop attacking Russian oil refineries. Zelensky said that if Ukraine were not to attack oil infrastructure targets for a month, then it must be given enough Patriot-type air defence missiles at least for that month to be able to repel Russian attacks.
The Ukrainian military can no longer repel many enemy attacks, especially those with ballistic missiles, because it is running out of ammunition for the advanced defence systems. Zelensky repeatedly asks the Western partners for additional support for Ukrainian air defence and insists in particular on further interceptor missiles for the Patriot systems. These have now become a scarce commodity in many places – also as a result of the Iran war. Production in the USA has already been increased, but is not keeping pace with developments in the various conflicts.
The two hacker attacks coincide in time with the end of a locally limited ceasefire. According to Al Jazeera, the truce in part of the Russian-occupied Kherson region began on Tuesday and ended on Sunday; according to the report, it was the longest of the war so far. A ceasefire had previously also cleared the way for evacuations from Oleshky, as ZDFheute reports. Residents of the occupied southern Ukrainian city were able to return to their relatives.
