Ukraine's air-raid alert application and the mobile app of Russia's emergencies ministry were both compromised by hackers on Sunday evening and overnight into Monday, according to Corriere della Sera. Users on both sides were shown fabricated warnings, including claims of a radiation threat in Ukraine and false nuclear and chemical alerts in Russia. Each side pointed the finger at the other, and neither has published technical evidence of who was behind the intrusions.
Why it matters
The two apps are not routine software. They are the channels governments rely on to tell civilians to take cover. Corriere della Sera reports that the fake messages included lines such as "nuclear and chemical alert," "imminent attacks in several cities" and "fighting in the streets." When the system people trust in an emergency starts issuing false instructions, the damage goes beyond a single outage: it erodes confidence in every alert that follows. Ukrainian authorities turned to Telegram channels to calm the public and correct the record.
What Ukraine says happened
Ukraine's air force and its anti-disinformation centre said late on Sunday that the Air Alarm app had "probably been subjected to hostile interference," Corriere della Sera reports. Air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat confirmed to the AFP news agency that the application had in fact been hacked. The false alerts that appeared on it concerned a radiation threat.
SPRAVDI, Ukraine's centre for strategic communications, blamed Russia for the attack in a post on its X account. Kyiv city authorities said a separate app dedicated to the capital was still working normally.
What Russia says happened
Russia's emergencies ministry said on Telegram that its app had come under a "massive cyber attack" that let intruders push false information to the public, according to Corriere della Sera. The ministry said technicians were working to fix the problem. TASS reported that the ministry was restoring the application, and Telegram channels had described fake nuclear-threat messages going out across Russia. The Russian ministry did not say who it held responsible.
A double strike at a delicate moment
The hacks came shortly after the end of the longest pause in fighting since the war began — a six-day truce limited to the eastern Kherson region. Corriere della Sera reports that the lull, mediated by US First Lady Melania Trump and begun on Tuesday morning, allowed a humanitarian mission to reach the city of Oleshky, which is currently under Russian occupation. Ukrainian officials linked the timing of the cyberattacks to the truce's expiry.
Drones and a Black Sea strike
The cyberattacks unfolded alongside continued fighting. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 193 drones at Ukrainian territory from the evening of 1 November, and that air defences destroyed or neutralised 154 of them, Corriere della Sera reports. The wave included Shahed attack drones — 75 of them jet-powered — as well as Gerbera and Parody decoy drones. They were fired from Russia's Orel, Kursk and Bryansk regions, from occupied areas of Donetsk and from Gvardiyske in Crimea.
Ukraine's response drew on aviation, anti-aircraft missile units, electronic warfare, drone units and mobile fire groups. By 8am local time, preliminary figures recorded impacts in 26 locations and debris from downed drones in nine more. At the time of the statement, at least six Russian drones were still in Ukrainian airspace and air defence operations were ongoing.
Russia said it struck a military facility in the Odesa region, according to Interfax citing the Russian defence ministry. A Russian attack also targeted what Moscow described as a cargo ship used for military purposes 36 miles south of the port of Odesa in the Black Sea. An Odesa official said on Telegram that four people were injured.
Energy talks and a missile condition
Separately, US officials told the Wall Street Journal that Washington supports a rapid resumption of Russian natural gas sales to Europe through pipelines crossing Ukraine, as part of negotiations toward an "energy truce" ahead of winter, Corriere della Sera reports. The plan, proposed by US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff during visits to Moscow and Kyiv in September, would see Russian gas sold through a US intermediary to get around European sanctions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country will stop striking Russian oil refineries — meeting a request from US President Donald Trump — on condition that Washington supplies Kyiv with Patriot interceptor missiles.
What to watch: whether either government restores its alert app with an explanation of how the breach happened, and whether the timing of the hacks affects the fragile arrangements around Kherson and the energy talks.
