KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has confirmed that Ukraine hacked Russia's emergency alert app in retaliation for a cyberattack on Ukraine's own air-raid warning app, telling the US broadcaster PBS NewsHour on Monday: "We only respond on their attacks. They attacked our system. It was a cyberattack." He added that Ukraine had defended itself, the Associated Press reported via AAP.
Source: AAP / Associated Press
This admission is the new development in a story Awaaz Punjab has been following since the first fake warnings appeared on Sunday night. Read: Ukraine's Air Alert app hacked with false nuclear warnings
What Zelenskyy told PBS
Speaking to PBS NewsHour anchor Amna Nawaz, Zelenskyy said Ukraine acted only after it became clear the attack on its alert system was, in his words, a personal attack by Russia against Ukrainian civilians, PBS News reported. He accused Russia of repeatedly carrying out cyberattacks on targets intended to harm civilians, including Ukrainian banks and the pension system. The BBC reported that it had not been established who carried out either attack or whether the two incidents were connected; Zelenskyy's interview is the first statement by either government claiming responsibility for one of them. No Russian response to Zelenskyy's remarks had been reported as of Tuesday.
Source: PBS NewsHour / BBC
Sunday night in Ukraine: fake radiation and nuclear warnings
The sequence began at about 10:45 p.m. Kyiv time on Sunday, when Ukraine's Air Alert app — used by millions to track incoming Russian missiles and drones — pushed false warnings of high radiation levels, a chemical threat and street fighting in Kyiv. One message, written in Russian, said the whole country was under nuclear alert and named Russia's nuclear-capable Oreshnik ballistic missile. Ukraine's Air Force said on Telegram that the app had likely been compromised by the enemy and stressed there was no radiation threat. The app was suspended and later restored; Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said the breach had no impact on Ukraine's military command systems, the Associated Press reported.
Source: Associated Press
Hours later in Russia: fake warhead warnings in 33 regions
About four hours later, at around 2:45 a.m. Moscow time on Monday, Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations said its own mobile app had suffered what it called a "massive cyberattack". Fake alerts claiming that nuclear warheads carried by Ukrainian P1-SUN drones had been launched at every region told residents to stockpile food for three weeks and shelter in basements, and the ministry said the messages reached 33 regions. The ministry said the hack could not affect Russia's main warning network of sirens, loudspeakers, text messages and broadcasts, of which the app is only a supplementary part, according to reporting by SOFX and The Record.
Source: SOFX / The Record
Awaaz Punjab reported the Russian app breach separately when Moscow announced it on Monday. Read: Russia's emergencies app hit by cyberattack with false alerts
Competing claims, and what is not verified
What is solid
- Ukraine's Air Force and Russia's Emergencies Ministry each officially reported that their own alert app was breached and sent false warnings.
- Zelenskyy told PBS NewsHour on Monday that Ukraine hacked the Russian system in response — his own words, on the record.
What is only claimed
- Who hacked Ukraine's app: a group called Hitcore was said by a Russian Telegram channel to have claimed responsibility, which could not be independently verified; the BBC said responsibility for both attacks was not established.
- Who hacked Russia's app before Zelenskyy's admission: a Kyiv-based group calling itself DC8044 claimed it acted through the app's programming interface — also unverified.
- Russia has not publicly responded to Zelenskyy's claim that Moscow attacked Ukraine's app first.
Why the timing matters
The hacks landed just as a six-day local ceasefire around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in Kherson region expired at midnight at the start of Monday — the longest pause in fighting since Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022, brokered with the involvement of US First Lady Melania Trump to allow evacuations and aid deliveries. Nearly 800 people were evacuated during the truce, Melania Trump said on X. Hours after it ended, Ukrainian officials also warned that Russia was preparing another large-scale strike on Ukraine's energy grid.
Source: Associated Press / BBC
Emergency alert apps are civilian life-safety systems: millions check them before deciding whether to run to a shelter. Both governments say the physical warning networks — sirens and broadcasts — kept working, but security experts quoted by the BBC said the informal, error-filled wording of the fake messages pointed to hacktivist groups rather than state operators, a claim Zelenskyy's admission now complicates.
What happens next
Ukraine's emergency service said the national alert system was operating normally and the app's developers said extra protections were being added; Russia's ministry said its app would be fully restored by the end of Monday. The exchange comes ahead of US envoy Steve Witkoff's planned meetings with Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Abu Dhabi, and as Zelenskyy warns of a possible new Russian strike wave timed to the US midterm elections — a warning Awaaz Punjab reported on Monday.
Source: AAP / Associated Press