Ukraine indicated overnight that its mobile population alert application had been hacked, an announcement followed by that of Russia reporting an attack on Monday against the application of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, shortly after the end of a localized truce on the front.
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry reported that its mobile application used to alert the population of Ukrainian drone attacks and other dangers had been targeted by a “massive cyberattack”.
This attack allowed its authors to “spread false information among the population,” the ministry wrote on Telegram, adding that work was underway to “correct the vulnerability of the mobile application and restore its normal operation.”
A few hours earlier, the Ukrainian Air Force had indicated that the official application used throughout the country to receive real-time warnings of the threat of Russian air strikes, by region, district or locality, had been hacked.
False alerts broadcast on applications
Russia did not immediately say who was responsible for the cyberattack on its application, while the Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications (Spravdi) attributed the hacking of its application to Russia.
“This can be seen in the appearance of several unusual alerts. In addition, a message in Russian mentions +Orechnik+, a Russian missile, Spravdi indicated in a publication on the X platform showing a screenshot of messages on the application reporting in particular a threat of nuclear radiation and chemical threats.
A six-day truce comes to an end
These cyberattacks come as a six-day truce expired Sunday evening in Olechky. The cessation of fighting allowed the evacuation of residents of this town located on the front line in the Kherson region, with mined access points, under the crossfire of Russian and Ukrainian drones, and plagued for months by serious shortages.
This is the longest ceasefire since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022. Neither kyiv nor Moscow have reported any violation of the agreement, unlike other partial ceasefires, notably on the occasion of Orthodox Easter.
This pause in fighting, negotiated by US First Lady Melania Trump, is an “important step in our joint humanitarian efforts” with Russia, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said.
U.S.-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine are due to resume this month, after being de facto frozen since the United States and Israel launched joint strikes against Iran in late February.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that his country would stop hitting Russian oil refineries, as requested by his American counterpart, Donald Trump, if Washington supplied kyiv with Patriot interceptor missiles.
The Ukrainian army now targets refineries, pipelines and oil depots in Russia almost every week, to deprive Moscow of revenues from the sale of hydrocarbons, which are used in particular to finance its war effort.
On the ground, the head of the military administration of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, urged residents of the region to “be particularly vigilant” and “immediately respond to warnings of Russian attacks” after the ceasefire expires.
An hour before the end of the truce, the Russian Defense Ministry wrote on Telegram: “We are not sparing the ammunition, nor the enemy. The night will be hot, we are at work.
Russia and Ukraine also continued their strikes outside the ceasefire zone. Russian strikes on Sunday left three dead, including a 13-year-old girl, in the regions of Vinnytsia (center) and Sumy (north), according to Ukrainian authorities.
