MOSCOW, November 2, 2026— Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said Monday that its mobile app was hit by a cyberattack that let outsiders push false warnings to users, according to the state news agency TASS. The incident came hours after Ukraine reported that its own air raid alert app had been hacked.

What users saw

The bogus notification told Russians that nuclear warheads had been launched at every region of the country. It advised people to stock up on roughly three weeks of food and take shelter in their cellars.

The message made no attempt to pass as an official bulletin. It was written in slang, included profanity and insulted Russia, at one point calling its regions “swamps.”

Ministry response

The ministry described the attack as massive and said specialists were working to close the vulnerability and restore the app. It said the national warning system was unaffected. It also played down the incident, calling the app a supplementary source of information rather than one of its main alert channels.

Claim of responsibility

Atesh, a pro-Ukrainian hacking group, posted a screenshot of the fake alert on its Telegram channel and announced that the app had been hacked. The group also said regional ministry channels on the MAX messenger were compromised. There is no independent confirmation of Atesh’s role. Russian media and regional authorities have confirmed that the ministry’s services were hacked.

Ukraine hit first

Ukraine’s air raid app began sending false alerts shortly before 11 p.m. on Sunday, warning of air raids and chemical and nuclear attacks. One alert claimed that a nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile had been launched. Ukraine’s air force said the alerts were broadcast in Russian and suggested Russia was behind the hack. All-clear messages followed, and Ukraine’s digital ministry temporarily suspended the app while sirens and other alert methods kept working.

A familiar tactic

Russian audiences have seen something like this before. In March 2023, hackers interrupted TV and radio broadcasts in Moscow and the Sverdlovsk region with a fake nuclear strike warning, which the Emergencies Ministry blamed on a cyberattack.

Sources: Reuters, Meduza, UNN, Mezha, The Daily Telegraph.