Ukrainians and Russians receive fake nuclear attack warnings after hackers break into BOTH countries' emergency alert apps
The hoax struck minutes after loudspeakers in Lviv blared the fake warnings aloud, as Russia simultaneously claimed its own emergency app suffered a cyberattack sending fake nuclear alerts inside Russia.
Millions of Ukrainians endured ten minutes of terror on Sunday night after their 'Air Alert' app sent messages warning of a nuclear Oreshnik missile strike, radiation hazards, chemical attacks and street fighting in Kyiv — all fabricated. The false alerts, written in Russian with spelling mistakes rather than the mandatory Ukrainian, triggered loudspeakers across the Lviv region before the Air Force confirmed there was no threat.
Russia's emergency app was hit hours later, sending fake warnings to users across all regions that nuclear-warhead drones had been launched and urging people to stockpile food for three weeks.
Hacking group Hitcore claimed responsibility for the attacks, although no independent verification of that claim was possible; Ukraine blamed Russian-linked actors while Russia pointed to a Ukrainian espionage group.
The cyberattacks came just minutes after the expiry of a six-day local ceasefire in Kherson brokered by Melania Trump and Pope Leo — described by one Ukrainian lawmaker as the 'biggest de-escalation since 2022'.
