Ukraine’s Air Force said late on Sunday, 1 November, that the public Air Alarm app had most likely been hacked. For a short time it displayed, among other things, a nuclear alert for Kyiv and other regions; the military says there is no radiation threat.
The Air Force’s statement was posted on Telegram. As quoted by Reuters, the military wrote that the app „appears to be under enemy influence”. It added: „There is no radiation threat! Stay calm and follow our channel”. According to the agency, the irregularity disappeared after some time.
What alerts users saw
The Liga.net portal reports that at 22:47 Ukrainian time (21:47 in Poland), messages appeared in the app about a radiation and chemical threat in Kyiv and about street fighting and missile strikes across the country. A Russian-language message also circulated about an alleged nuclear alarm and the use of the „Oreshnik” missile.
According to Liga.net, sirens in Kyiv did not sound, and the city’s warning system, the Kyiv Digital app and street sirens worked normally. Journalists at the Kyiv Independent, however, reported that alarms sounded on streets in various parts of the country, including Zakarpattia Oblast. The discrepancy requires further explanation.
Regional authorities respond
According to the Kyiv Independent, governors of several oblasts reassured residents. The governor of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Svitlana Onyshchuk, wrote that the situation was calm and that reports pointed to a cyberattack on the app. The governor of Vinnytsia Oblast, Natalia Zabolotna, warned people not to click links in messages, as the attack may be linked to phishing.
The Air Alarm app is officially supported: it was created in cooperation with Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and the company Ajax Systems.
Who is behind it
The Air Force speaks of „enemy influence” but has not identified the perpetrator or the attack method. Ukrinform, cited by the Polish daily „Rzeczpospolita”, reports that Kyiv blames Russia. However, we did not find an official statement confirming this. As of publication, it has not been stated whether the app has been fully secured or whether an investigation is underway.
What it means
For Poles, this incident does not pose a direct threat: the Ukrainian military denies any radiation danger. People in Ukraine, including Poles living or travelling there, should rely on official channels of the Air Force and regional authorities and not open links from suspicious notifications. The case also shows that warning apps can be targets of disinformation attacks. In Poland, we wrote about siren tests in connection with the nationwide ALARM-26 exercises.
