Ukraine's official Air Alarm app appeared to have been hacked on the evening of 1 November, displaying notifications about radiation and chemical hazards. Ukraine's Air Force subsequently said the app had likely been subjected to Russian interference and told people there was no radiation threat.
The sequence of alerts began at 22:47, when the app warned of a radiation threat in Kyiv. Notifications about a chemical hazard and a threat of fighting in the streets followed. The app also indicated a missile attack threat covering the whole of Ukraine, rather than a single city or region.
Alongside those warnings, a message written in Russian appeared in the app. It announced that there would be a nuclear threat throughout Ukraine, told users not to worry and said Oreshnik was on its way. No sirens sounded, however, despite the warnings being displayed in the official app.
At 23:02, the Air Force published a statement addressing the notifications. It described the incident as likely hostile interference, explicitly rejected the warning of a radiation threat and urged people to remain calm. The statement also directed the public to follow updates on the Air Force's own channel.
Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat reinforced that message in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda. He stressed that the service had not announced any radiation threat or other threats through its official channels that evening. His comments distinguished the notifications appearing in the app from information issued by the Air Force itself.
The Air Force's official social media accounts remained available for people checking current threats and air-raid warnings. Those accounts were the channels authorities pointed people towards after the app displayed the hazard notifications. The Air Force described interference as likely, rather than presenting the suspected hacking as a confirmed finding.
The incident came after a recently announced addition to the app's functions. On 17 October, Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said a map showing the estimated routes of Russian drones and missiles had been introduced in the official Air Alarm app. That announcement concerned the map feature, while the warnings displayed on 1 November prompted the Air Force's statement about suspected interference.
