Ukrainian Air‑Alert App Compromised, Issuing False Radiation Warnings, Officials Confirm

At 22:49, a fourth alert warned of a street‑fighting threat in Kyiv, stating that combat was occurring there and advising residents to stay indoors.

At 23:53, a series of all‑clear notifications were sent to users’ phones, each linked to the previous Kyiv alerts, individually confirming the end of those threats.

In a separate Telegram post, Ukraine’s Central Intelligence Agency said the Air Alert application had triggered a Radiation Hazard signal on loudspeakers in the Lviv region, but stressed that there was no actual radiation danger.

If the app is malfunctioning, Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation urges the public to enable smartphone notifications, listen for emergency sirens, and rely solely on official sources for information.

Governors of several other regions also posted on Telegram, confirming that the app had apparently been hacked and that there was no local threat.

“Everything is calm in the region for now,” said Svitlana Onyshchuk, governor of Ivano‑Frankivsk Oblast. The app had issued a red‑level air‑raid alert for the oblast in eastern Ukraine from 22:50 to 23:57.

Vinnytsia Oblast Governor Natalya Zabolotna announced a cyber‑attack on the Air Alert app and warned Telegram users not to click any links in the message, as they could be phishing attempts.

The Air Alert app is supported by Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and provides instant notifications about the start and end of defence alerts. The ministry had earlier announced the app was temporarily taken offline for maintenance after it had “apparently been compromised,” urging residents to enable smartphone emergency notifications to receive state‑issued alerts.

A few hours after the false alerts in Ukraine, Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that its own app had been hit by “a massive cyberattack” that disseminated “fake information to the public.”

No further details were disclosed by the ministry or state media.

Ukrainian news outlet UNN reported that the hack generated fake alerts warning of a nuclear threat inside Russia.

UNN reported that Atesh, a partisan Ukrainian group operating in Russian‑held territory, claimed responsibility for the hack.

A purported emergency alert screenshot published by Atesh—unverified by the BBC— instructed users to “urgently” stockpile provisions for three weeks and seek shelter in basements, and included profane language.

The alerts occurred just minutes before the scheduled end of a localized ceasefire in Ukraine’s frontline Kherson region, which had been in effect since the previous Tuesday and officially concluded at 23:00 on Sunday.

Fighting continued elsewhere during the Kherson ceasefire period, which was intended to facilitate the evacuation of civilians from the Russian‑occupied city of Oleshky.

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