KYIV, November 3, 2026 — Unknown hackers breached Ukraine’s nationwide Air Alert app late Sunday, sending Kyiv residents false warnings of an imminent nuclear strike, a chemical attack and street fighting in the capital. Within minutes the Ukrainian Air Force confirmed the notifications were fake, and the app’s developers suspended the service. Hours later, Russia reported that its own emergency alerts app had been hacked in a separate incident.
The messages began at about 10:45 p.m. Kyiv time, according to NBC News. They warned residents not to go outside because of a radiation hazard, a chemical threat and street-to-street fighting. One message, written in Russian, said all of Ukraine was under nuclear alert and added: “Don’t worry. Oreshnik is in action,” a reference to Russia’s nuclear-capable hypersonic missile.
The Guardian reported that the fake alerts were written in English with spelling mistakes as well as in Ukrainian. The Kremlin has used the Oreshnik ballistic weapon three times before, hitting the Kyiv region and the cities of Dnipro and Lviv, according to the newspaper.
Ten Minutes of Uncertainty
At 11:02 p.m., 15 minutes after the first alert, the Air Force posted on multiple platforms that the notifications were false. “The Air Alert app appears to have been subjected to hostile interference. There is no radiation threat!” the statement said, urging Ukrainians to stay calm and follow official updates.
The app’s developers said “unauthorized third parties interfered with the operation of the app” and temporarily suspended its operations. They later called the incident a cyberattack and said they were gradually restoring service. “The team is carrying out additional measures to protect the app in order to prevent similar situations in the future,” one statement said.
Authorities in the western Lviv region reported that some public warning sirens and loudspeaker systems broadcast a radiation hazard signal, according to NBC News. Yurii Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, said the hack had no impact on Ukraine’s security operations and that the Air Alert app is not affiliated with the country’s military command systems.
Reactions among residents varied. Olena Yermakova, 32, a researcher in Kyiv, told NBC News she was outside with her dog when the first alert arrived. She ran inside and began running through a checklist of what to do during a nuclear threat. “The seconds before that were absolutely terrifying,” she said. Because the message was in Russian, she said, “I thought it was a hack by the Russians.”
Others treated the alerts as an obvious fake. Many shared memes online mocking the warnings, particularly the use of Russian. “No one was particularly surprised,” one user wrote on X. “They might as well have thrown in a dinosaur attack, too.”
Moscow Reports Its Own Breach
At 2:45 a.m. Moscow time, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry app was also hacked. False alerts went to users in 33 regions, according to Russia’s tightly controlled media, warning of “nuclear warheads” launched across the country and telling residents to stock up on food for three weeks and shelter in basements.
The Russian ministry said attackers had exploited a vulnerability in its app’s administrative panel, prompting officials to disconnect and isolate affected services. It did not name any suspects but said the alerts spread “false information.” A purported screenshot shared on Telegram by Atesh, a partisan Ukrainian group operating inside Russian-held territory, warned that “nuclear warheads mounted on P1-Suns,” a Ukrainian attack drone, “had been launched at all regions of Russia.” The alert, which included profanities, told residents to “stock up urgently on food for three weeks and hide.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not address the breach specifically when asked, saying all Russian government internet resources were “one way or another… under constant cyberattacks,” including the presidential site, which is targeted “round the clock.” He said the spread of AI technology was contributing to an increase in cyberattacks.
It was unclear who was behind either attack or whether the two incidents were connected. A pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, Mash, said it had spoken with a group called Hitcorecorp that claimed responsibility for the Ukrainian hack and referenced a channel of that name. NBC News could not verify who the group is or whether it was responsible. Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications blamed Russia, pointing to the use of the Russian language in one of the fake messages.
Fear as a Target
The attacks struck a system millions of Ukrainians depend on. Air Alert, developed by Ajax Systems and Stfalcon with support from Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, pushes warnings of incoming missiles and drones to phones across the country. Many citizens have disabled the app altogether after four and a half years of almost nightly alerts, several told the BBC. Others rely on Telegram channels, where the Air Force and security analysts share more specific information about incoming strikes.
That habits have shifted is itself part of the vulnerability. An alert system people have learned to tune out, or to check against a second source, loses some of its purpose in the minutes that matter. But the same familiarity limited the damage on Sunday: CBS News reported that some Kyiv residents recognized the notifications as fake after checking Telegram channels, and Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Kyiv said most people understood within about half an hour that the messages were a hacking attack.
Al Jazeera reported that this appears to be the first time either country’s official alert app has been hacked. Cyberwarfare has nonetheless been a constant of the conflict. Russian hackers attacked Ukraine’s election systems in the past and in January 2022 hit Ukrainian government and banking sites. In late 2023, the Russian group Sandworm took the private telecommunications network Kyivstar offline, disrupting notifications for days. Ukrainian groups have also carried out their own operations.
A Ceasefire Ends, and Fighting Resumes
The fake alerts landed as a rare humanitarian ceasefire was ending. The truce in and around the Russian-occupied southern town of Oleshky, across the Dnipro River from Kherson, expired at 10:59 p.m. Ukraine time on Sunday, minutes after the first fake notifications went out. It had begun on Oct. 27 and lasted six days, the longest pause so far in Russia’s more than four-year war on Ukraine. The White House said it was brokered by first lady Melania Trump.
During the truce, humanitarian aid entered Oleshky and some civilians were evacuated. Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said both sides had observed the agreement and were discussing further humanitarian measures.
Fighting resumed quickly. Kherson’s military administration said a Russian drone hit a hospital at 7:40 a.m. on Monday. Video footage showed wrecked rooms with windows blown out and doors broken. Nobody was hurt, officials said.
There is evidence that Russian forces used the six-day pause to strengthen positions in Oleshky and rotate in new troops. Footage shared with Sky News showed Russian soldiers deploying heavy military equipment and carrying ammunition into burnt-out buildings. Armoured vehicles were seen moving through the town’s streets, three miles from Kherson. Before the truce, resupply had been difficult because of the threat from Ukrainian kamikaze drones. “Now they have this opportunity. And for the last few days this movement has been happening constantly,” the commander of Ukraine’s 34th Separate Marine Brigade, Dmitry Pulinets, told Sky News.
Russia’s emergencies ministry said on Monday that its app’s full functionality would be restored by the end of the day. Ukraine’s developers said they were restoring the Air Alert service gradually while adding protections against a repeat.
Sources
- Fake alerts warn of nuclear danger as Ukraine and Russia report emergency app hacks
- Fake nuclear warnings issued after Ukrainian and Russian air alert apps hacked
- Hackers send fake nuclear threat alert to Ukraine emergency app
- Nuclear radiation in Russia, Ukraine? No, just hacked warning alerts
- Ukraine and Russia's emergency alert apps both hacked, residents warned of fake nuclear, chemical strikes
Photo: Eugene Chystiakov / Unsplash (Unsplash License)
