Hackers Send Fake Nuclear Threat Alerts to Ukrainian and Russian Citizens
Pierluigi Paganini
November 02, 2026
Hackers reportedly hit Ukraine ‘s and Russia ‘s emergency alert apps, sending fake nuclear and attack warnings and raising concerns over public safety.
Ukraine and Russia both said on Sunday night that hackers had compromised their emergency alert apps and used them to send fake warnings about air raids and other attacks, including nuclear threats. The BBC reported the incident, but neither side’s claims have been independently confirmed.
Shortly before 11 p.m. local time (9 p.m. GMT), Ukraine’s widely used Air Alarm app sent the highest-level air raid warnings across the country. Some people, including residents of Kyiv, also received alerts about possible radiation, chemical attacks and street fighting. A message posted on Telegram said the app had likely been targeted by a cyberattack, confirmed there was no radiation threat and urged people to remain calm.
“Shortly before 23:00 local time (21:00 GMT), Ukraine’s widely usedair raid app sent red-level air raid warnings nation-wide, with additional warnings of radiation, chemical attacks, and street fighting sent to some residents in areas including Kyiv.” reports BBC.
“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.” an alert on Telegram read.
The false alerts started at about 22:47 with a message that a radiation threat had been declared in Kyiv. At 22:48 came a message in Russian saying a nuclear alert would cover all of Ukraine and not to worry because “it’s Oreshnik flying”. Oreshnik is a Russian intermediate-range ballistic missile that can carry nuclear or conventional warheads, and Russia has the world’s biggest nuclear arsenal, with President Vladimir Putin repeatedly hinting he’s open to using every weapon available.
Two more alerts arrived at 22:49. One, in Ukrainian, warned of a chemical attack on Kyiv and told people not to go outside, and the other said street fighting was taking place in the city. Red, orange and green messages reached phones, and at 23:53 users got all-clear messages, each declaring one of the Kyiv threats over.
A Ukrainian intelligence body, which the BBC calls the Central Intelligence Agency, said there had been a failure in the app and urged people to use other sources of information. It added that the alerts triggered a radiation hazard signal on loudspeakers in the Lviv region, with no real threat.
“The Air Alert app is supported by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, and informs users instantly about the beginning and end of defence alerts. The ministry said it temporarily disabled the app for maintenance after it had “apparently been compromised”. states BBC.
“While the false alerts were quickly contained, cybersecurity experts suggested it was a new line in apparent Russian cyberattacks.”
The temporary shutdown of the Air Alert app also carries significant risks, even if it lasts only a short time. During an outage, users may not receive timely warnings about incoming attacks, leaving them with less time to reach shelters or take protective measures. This is particularly dangerous in a country where missile and drone attacks can happen with little warning.
The incident also highlights a difficult security trade-off: disabling a compromised alert system may prevent attackers from spreading false warnings, but it can temporarily remove a critical channel for delivering real emergency information. Any shutdown therefore needs reliable backup channels, such as sirens, official messaging services and other emergency communication systems.
Regional leaders tried to calm people. Svitlana Onyshchuk, head of the Ivano-Frankivsk region, said everything was calm, even though the app had shown a red-level alert for her region from 22:50 to 23:57. Natalya Zabolotna, her counterpart in Vinnytsia, confirmed a cyberattack on the app and warned people not to click the link in the message, which could be phishing.
Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation has advice for when the app isn’t working: turn on smartphone notifications, pay attention to sirens, and read only official sources. Oleksander Merezhko, chair of the foreign affairs committee in the Ukrainian parliament and a member of President Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, said the attack caused no panic. Ukrainians, especially in Kyiv, are used to practically non-stop alerts, he told the BBC, and the message in Russian aroused suspicion at once. The attackers picked a language that gave them away.
A few hours later, Russia’s ministry of emergency situations said its own app had suffered “a massive cyberattack” that sent fake information to the public. Ukrainian outlet UNN reported that the hack sent fake nuclear threat alerts inside Russia, citing Atesh, a partisan Ukrainian group operating in Russian-held territory. A screenshot Atesh shared on Telegram, described as purported, claimed nuclear warheads mounted on Ukrainian P1-Sun attack drones had been launched at all regions of Russia, opened with a “risk of getting lively” warning and told residents to stock up on three weeks of food and hide. The alert also had profanities.
Russia said it was still restoring the app but claimed the hack had not affected its wider alert system. It said people could still receive warnings through sirens, loudspeakers, text messages, TV and radio. The false alerts appeared minutes before a local ceasefire in Ukraine’s Kherson region ended on Sunday night. The truce had allowed civilians to leave Russian-occupied Oleshky. Although the fake warnings were quickly stopped, experts see the attack as a worrying escalation.
“I think it’s the first time it’s happened to an official Ukrainian information app, but I suspect it won’t be the last,” Herbert Lin, a senior research scholar for cyber policy and security at Stanford University, told BBC World Service’s Newsday programme.
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(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Ukraine)
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