Late Sunday night, phone screens across Kyiv lit up with terrifying alerts declaring that radiation, chemical attacks, and street fighting were threatening the Ukrainian capital. The messages urged residents to stay indoors and claimed that an Oreshnik ballistic missile was in flight. Within minutes, Ukrainian officials scrambled to reassure the public that there was no danger: the country's official air raid alert app had been compromised in a cyberattack.
The fake notifications began just before 23:00, triggering nationwide red alerts before targeting Kyiv with increasingly alarming messages. In the western Lviv region, sirens even broadcast radiation warnings over public loudspeakers. About an hour later, the app sent out all-clear notices, while regional authorities warned users not to click any links embedded in the notifications due to potential phishing risks. Ukraine's Centre for Strategic Communications blamed Russia for the breach.
The digital disruption soon spread across the border. Hours after the Ukrainian alerts were cleared, Russia's Emergencies Ministry announced that its own emergency mobile app had suffered a "massive cyberattack." Fake warnings sent to Russian users urged them to take shelter in basements and prepare for nuclear strikes, an action later claimed by a Ukrainian partisan group.
The cyberattacks occurred just minutes before the end of a temporary ceasefire in the southern Kherson region, which had allowed civilians to evacuate front-line areas. With emergency tools targeted for psychological warfare, Ukrainian officials reminded the public not to depend solely on mobile apps and to rely on sirens and verified state channels during crises.