Air Alert app sent users false radiation, chemical and street-fighting warnings; Ukraine's Air Force cites "hostile interference"

The cause of the false alerts has not been independently confirmed. Claims of responsibility have not been verified.

Ukraine’s Air Force said the Air Alert app, the phone app that sends air-raid alerts, “probably” suffered “hostile interference” after users received false warnings of radiation, chemical and street-fighting threats late on Sunday 1 November. In a post on its Telegram channel, the Air Force said: “There is no radiation threat! Stay calm and follow our updates on our channel.” Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat, asked by AFP whether the app had been hacked, replied: “Yes, it has been.”

What users received

According to the BBC, citing Reuters, the messages began at about 8:47pm GMT (10:47pm in Kyiv). The first read “Radiation threat declared in Kyiv.” At 8:48pm GMT a message in Russian read “Hi! There will be a nuclear alert across Ukraine. Don’t worry, it’s Oreshnik flying.” At 8:49pm GMT users received a warning of a chemical attack on Kyiv and a message saying street fighting was taking place in the city. All-clear messages then followed for each threat. The Kyiv Independent reported that the false alerts were cleared after about an hour.

Officials said some of the messages carried a link. Vinnytsia region governor Natalia Zabolotna wrote: “Cyberattack on the ‘Air Alert’ app. Do not click on the link in the message.” Ivano-Frankivsk region governor Svitlana Onyshchuk said: “Currently, the situation in the oblast is calm. Reports indicate a cyberattack on the notification app.”

Official responses

• Ministry of Digital Transformation: According to Ukrainska Pravda, the ministry said the app was “probably” subjected to hostile influence and had been temporarily switched off while technical work is carried out. It advised people to turn on emergency alerts on their phones, listen for sirens and follow the Air Force’s channels. It and Kyiv city authorities said alerts in the Kyiv Digital app were working normally.
• State Emergency Service: The service said the nationwide alert system was operating normally, that all threat signals go to regional administrations and from there to street alert systems, and urged people not to follow third-party links or spread unverified information.
• Center for Countering Disinformation: The centre said the app was likely compromised and that the threat information it was broadcasting “does not correspond to reality”, AFP reported.
• Lviv regional military administration: Its civil-protection department said there had been a failure in the app and that people should use other official sources, and that the app’s restoration would be announced separately, DailyLviv.com reported.

Kyiv Independent journalists reported alerts sounding in streets across the country, including in Zakarpattia region. The BBC, citing a Ukrainian government Telegram post, reported that a radiation-hazard signal also played on loudspeakers in Lviv region because of the app. The State Emergency Service said the national system that feeds street sirens was working normally.

Claims of responsibility

SPRAVDI, Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications, blamed Russia for the hack in a post on X, AFP reported. The AFP report did not cite evidence. In the reports reviewed, no Ukrainian agency had publicly named a suspect.

Lenta.ru and Vlast reported that a Russian hacking group calling itself Hitcore told the Telegram channel Mash it was responsible. According to that account, the group sent an administrator a malicious file named “ZAL-upa” after he chatted with someone he believed was a 17-year-old girl, and said more attacks would follow. Ukrainian officials have not confirmed this account, and it has not been independently verified.

Current status

As of about 11:10pm GMT on Sunday, the Ministry of Digital Transformation’s latest statement, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda, said the app was temporarily disabled for technical work. No confirmation that the app had been restored was found at that time. Ukrainian authorities advised people to rely on sirens, the phone emergency-alert system and Air Force channels in the meantime.

Background: The Air Alert app was developed by Ajax Systems and Stfalcon with support from the Ministry of Digital Transformation. Ajax said on the app’s fourth anniversary that it had more than 46 million downloads and over 6.7 million daily active users.