Millions of Ukrainians received blaring emergency alerts on their phones on Sunday night warning of an imminent nuclear attack, an incident blamed on a hack of the Air Raid Warning app.
A series of scam alerts on Sunday night told millions of Ukrainian and Russian citizens that they should take immediate action to protect themselves from an imminent nuclear attack. In Ukraine, air alert app pushes a series of messages, British publication daily telegraph The annotation has 46 million downloads and 7 million users start it every day: “Radiation threat. Kiev declares radiation threat. Don’t go out.”
This alert was followed by a second Russian-language alert sent to Ukrainian users, warning of an imminent attack by Russian Oreshnik missiles, the latest development in Moscow’s arsenal, which has already launched missiles against Ukraine without nuclear warheads, and advising that “nuclear alerts have been activated across Ukraine.” A follow-up message added that a chemical weapons attack alert had been issued in Kyiv and that “street fighting” had broken out in the city.
This photo shows a smartphone in Kiev during the Russian invasion of Ukraine on November 2, 2026, with a notification from the emergency alert app “Air Alert” on the screen. On the evening of November 1, 2026, millions of people across Ukraine received phone notifications warning of a “nuclear alert,” “chemical threat,” and even “street fights” in Kiev. Ukraine’s air force said its Air Alert app, which normally warns of Russian drone and missile attacks, had been “subject to hostile interference.” Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat confirmed the hacking incident to AFP. (Photo by Romain Pilippi/Getty Images for AFP)
At the same time, similar messages were sent to Russians in Moscow and other Russian cities via Russia’s own national air raid warning app. the times Claiming they were instructed to “emergency stockpile food for three weeks and take cover” and “hide in your f*cking shelters”.
The messages came amid actual airstrikes by Russian forces in Ukraine, including in Kiev and other cities, and included dozens of real-life warnings of drone strikes and guided bombs.
The fakes were quickly countered by state media in the warring countries. The Ukrainian Air Force told the public to “remain calm” and said through its official channels that “the air warning application may have been compromised. There is no radiation threat!”.
Ukraine blamed Russian hackers for the apparent hack.
The Ukrainian Air Force said that during the real air strikes at night, Russia dispatched 193 drones, 75 of which were jets, and 154 of them were shot down or otherwise flew to the ground. Waves of Russian drones hit 26 locations, and a further nine locations were damaged by debris from downed attacks.
Russia has the world’s largest nuclear weapons stockpile and Ukraine is a former nuclear power that surrendered its nuclear arsenal in the 1990s in exchange for independence guarantees. Since 2022, nuclear threats have become a feature of Russia’s incursions into Ukraine, albeit usually not against Ukraine itself but against its international backers.
Ukrainian President Zelensky has repeatedly raised the idea of Ukraine restoring its nuclear capabilities, apparently to encourage Western countries to more actively provide military equipment and funds to it.