Ukraine's Air Alert app warned users of radiation and chemical threats.
Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty Images
Quick Summary
-- A cyberattack on Ukraine’s Air Alert app sent false warnings of radiation, chemical threats and street fighting to users in Kyiv.
-- A subsequent cyberattack hit Russia’s emergency-alert app, sending false warnings of Ukrainian drone attacks with nuclear payloads.
-- Ukraine’s military blamed Russia for hacking its app, while neither country has claimed responsibility for the cyberattacks
This summary was generated with AI and reviewed by an editor. Read more about how we use artificial intelligence in our journalism.
KYIV—At 10:47 p.m. on Sunday, mobile phones in Ukraine’s capital city buzzed with unusual warnings. The country’s Air Alert app, which usually signals incoming Russian drones and missiles, warned them of radiation and chemical threats, as well as fighting in the streets.
The notification included a message in Russian: “Hi! There’s going to be a nuclear alert across all of Ukraine right now. Don’t worry, Oreshnik is on its way,” the message said, referring to a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile
A few hours later, a cyberattack hit the Russian government’s own emergency-alert app.
Minutes later, channels on the Telegram messaging app that millions of Ukrainians also follow for missile and drone alerts said the Air Alert app had likely been hacked. Ukraine’s air force quickly said there was no radiation threat and urged citizens to stay calm.
An obscenity-laced message, purporting to be from the Russian Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergencies, warned the population in all of Russia’s regions, which it called “the swamps,” that small Ukrainian drones were attacking with nuclear payloads and ordered them, in capital letters, to shelter in place for three weeks.
Russian authorities reported “a massive cyberattack, as a result of which attackers were able to send out false information to the public.”
Ukraine’s military blamed Russia for hacking Kyiv’s emergency-notification app.
“The Russians attacked this app tonight. Messages appeared that clearly indicated this was a hacker attack,” Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said in televised comments on Monday.
Ukraine’s air defenses were unaffected as the app serves only to notify the public, Ihnat said.
Russia hasn’t admitted responsibility for the first cyberattack, nor Ukraine for the second one.
The two countries have previously used hacking during the war to spy on each other, find new targets and assess damage from their attacks.
Both countries rely on various methods to notify the public of potential threats, from street sirens to digital channels operated by the military or local officials.
Ukraine’s Air Alert app was founded by two tech companies with support from the Ministry of Digital Transformation in the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The app had 46 million downloads and more than 6.7 million daily active users in March 2026, the app’s team said on its fourth anniversary.
On Monday, the team behind the app was working on restoring its full functionality and improving cybersecurity. A recently introduced feature that shows Russian drones and missiles moving in real time was suspended. But the app continued to alert people to missile and drone threats in different regions of Ukraine.
The Russian app, run by the Civil Defense Ministry in Moscow, was also working on restoring its functionality and patching vulnerabilities, the ministry said on Telegram.
Appeared in the November 3, 2026, print edition as 'Cyberattacks Hit Ukraine, Russia'.
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Anastasiia Malenko
Anastasiia Malenko
Anastasiia Malenko is a contributor to The Wall Street Journal covering the war in Ukraine, focusing on how it has reshaped Ukrainian society. She is based in Kyiv. She previously covered the war as a breaking news correspondent for Reuters and a reporter for the Kyiv Independent, the leading English-language newspaper in Ukraine. Anastasiia graduated from Stanford University with degrees in political science and economics.
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