Nuclear radiation in Russia, Ukraine? No, just hacked warning alerts

Warnings startle people in Ukraine, but authorities say they cleared up the confusion in under an hour.

A Ukrainian checks live air raid alerts on a mobile app [File: Kin Cheung/AP]

Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of hacking into systems used to send out emergency alerts to citizens, raising fears of a new escalation of digital and psychological warfare tactics.

The systems’ apps sent out radiation alerts on Sunday and Monday to civilians before officials issued public clarifications.

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list 4 of 4 Dead dolphins, naval mines: Russia-Ukraine war destroys the Black Sea

The fake threats began on the same day as a localised ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Kherson region came to an end on Sunday. The truce, which the United States said was brokered by first lady Melania Trump, is the longest so far in Russia’s more than four-year war on Ukraine. The ceasefire lasted for six days, during which humanitarian aid and evacuations were allowed in the Russian-occupied town of Olekshy.

Al Jazeera’s Audrey Macalpine, reporting from Kyiv, said many people in Ukraine now expect renewed fighting along the front lines.

Here’s what we know about the fake notifications:

Rescue workers pull a family from the rubble of a residential building destroyed by a Russian air strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on October 10, 2026 [Kateryna Klochko/AP]

Ukraine’s Air Force said late on Sunday that users of its Air Alert app, which warns people of incoming air attacks, received fake warnings of nuclear and chemical threats to areas in and around Kyiv.

Users were also warned of potential street combat and told that Russia’s hypersonic Oreshnik missile had been deployed.

“The air alert app appears to have been subjected to enemy influence,” the Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram.

“There is no radiation threat! Stay calm and follow our updates on our channel.”

Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications blamed Russia. In a post on X, the agency pointed to the use of the Russian language in one of the fake messages. The Ukrainian government said a separate app created for the capital city was working normally.

The fake alerts came just after 10pm (20:00 GMT), startling a lot of people, Macalpine reported.

“Even the speakers here in the centre of the city rang out warnings of these attacks,” she said. “But most people here understood within at least half an hour that this was some kind of hacking attack.”

Hours later on Monday morning, similar announcements came from Russia’s Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief, which said its warnings app came under a “massive cyberattack” and wrongly warned users of imminent drone attacks. The ministry did not name any suspects but said the alerts spread “false information”.

Media reports said the hackers warned Russians that “nuclear warheads mounted on P1-Suns [Ukrainian drones] had been launched on all regions” of the country. The alerts also instructed people to “urgently” stock up on food for three weeks and to hide.

Has this happened before?

This appears to be the first time either Ukraine’s or Russia’s official alert apps have been hacked.

However, cyberwarfare has long been a major part of the countries’ previous confrontations.

Russian hackers have attacked Ukraine’s election systems in the past and in January 2022 attacked Ukrainian government and banking sites. Cyberwarfare tactics have only intensified since February 2022 when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In late 2023, the Russian hacker group Sandworm took the private telecommunications network Kyivstar offline, disrupting notifications for days.

Ukrainian groups have also launched multiple cyberattacks on Russia.

The country’s volunteer-based IT Army of Ukraine was founded in the wake of Russia’s invasion specifically to engage in cyberwarfare against Russia and has reportedly targeted the Moscow Stock Exchange, Russia’s power grids and several government websites. In 2022, the Reuters news agency reported Ukrainian attackers used facial recognition software to scan the faces of dead Russian combatants and notified their families of their deaths.

Why is the threat of nuclear radiation in Ukraine significant?

Ukraine is particularly vulnerable because it has already suffered one nuclear disaster and it remains at risk due to fighting around another major nuclear plant.

In April 1986, the Chornobyl nuclear power plant , located in the then-Ukrainian Soviet Republic, exploded, releasing radioactive material. Scores of people died from the explosion itself, but thousands later developed severe health issues as a result, including thyroid cancer. Radiation was detected as far away as Sweden. It’s regarded as one of the two worst nuclear accidents in history along with the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan. Chornobyl remains a ghost town after its inhabitants were evacuated.

Ongoing fighting in the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia has raised fears that the tragic story could repeat itself. Russia partly controls the region, including Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest nuclear energy facility, is located.

Both sides have repeatedly launched attacks on each other’s positions with Russia targeting the Ukrainian-held provincial capital, Zaporizhzhia, and Ukraine targeting Russian-held areas, including Enerhodar.

Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, said a welder working at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was killed in a drone attack. The head of the agency, Rafael Grossi, called for “maximum military restraint” from both sides.

警告令乌克兰民众感到恐慌，但当局表示，他们在不到一个小时内就澄清了混乱局面。

一名乌克兰男子正在通过手机应用程序查看实时空袭警报。[图片：Kin Cheung/AP]

乌克兰和俄罗斯互相指责对方入侵了用于向公民发送紧急警报的系统，这引发了人们对数字和心理战策略新一轮升级的担忧。

在官方发布公开澄清声明之前，这些系统的应用程序在周日和周一向民众发出了辐射警报。

停火结束后，俄罗斯和乌克兰的四款空袭警报应用程序遭到网络攻击（列表 1/4）

赫尔松严阵以待，准备迎接战争重燃，俄乌局部停火协议宣告结束（共4条，此为第2条）

美国批准向乌克兰出售价值21亿美元的“爱国者”导弹，名单共4份，这是其中的3份。

列表 4/4：死海豚、水雷：俄乌战争摧毁黑海

这些虚假威胁始于周日，当天俄罗斯占领的赫尔松地区局部停火协议到期。美国称，这项​​停火协议由第一夫人梅拉尼娅·特朗普斡旋达成，是俄罗斯对乌克兰发动的四年多战争中迄今为止持续时间最长的停火协议。停火持续了六天，期间允许向俄罗斯占领的奥列克希镇运送人道主义援助物资和进行人员撤离。

半岛电视台记者奥黛丽·麦卡尔平从基辅报道称，乌克兰许多人现在预计前线将再次爆发战斗。

以下是我们目前了解到的关于虚假通知的信息：

2026年10月10日，在乌克兰扎波罗热，救援人员从被俄罗斯空袭摧毁的居民楼废墟中救出一家人。[Kateryna Klochko/AP]

乌克兰空军周日晚间表示，其“空中警报”应用程序（用于警告人们即将到来的空袭）的用户收到了有关基辅及其周边地区面临核威胁和化学威胁的虚假警告。

用户还被警告可能发生街头战斗，并被告知俄罗斯的高超音速“奥列什尼克”导弹已经部署。

乌克兰空军在 Telegram 上表示：“空中警报应用程序似乎受到了敌方的影响。”

“没有辐射威胁！请保持冷静，并关注我们频道上的最新消息。”

乌克兰战略传播中心将矛头指向俄罗斯。该机构在X网站上发表的一篇文章中指出，其中一条虚假信息使用了俄语。乌克兰政府则表示，为首都开发的一款独立应用程序运行正常。

据 Macalpine 报道，虚假警报在晚上 10 点刚过（格林尼治标准时间 20:00）出现，吓坏了很多人。

“就连市中心的广播都发出了关于这些攻击的警告，”她说。“但这里的大多数人在至少半小时内就明白这是某种黑客攻击。”

周一上午数小时后，俄罗斯民防、紧急情况和灾害救助部也发布了类似声明，称其预警应用程序遭到“大规模网络攻击”，错误地向用户发出即将发生无人机袭击的警告。该部没有指名道姓，但表示这些警报传播了“虚假信息”。

媒体报道称，黑客警告俄罗斯民众，“搭载在P1-Sun无人机（乌克兰无人机）上的核弹头已发射至该国所有地区”。警报还指示民众“紧急”储备三周的食物并躲藏起来。

以前发生过这种情况吗？

这似乎是乌克兰或俄罗斯的官方警报应用程序首次遭到黑客攻击。

然而，网络战长期以来一直是两国以往对抗的重要组成部分。

俄罗斯黑客过去曾攻击乌克兰的选举系统，并在2022年1月攻击了乌克兰政府和银行网站。自2022年2月俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰以来，网络战策略愈演愈烈。2023年末，俄罗斯黑客组织“沙虫”（Sandworm）瘫痪了乌克兰私营电信网络“基辅之星”（Kyivstar），导致通信中断数日。

乌克兰一些组织也对俄罗斯发动了多次网络攻击。

乌克兰的志愿者网络战组织“乌克兰信息技术军”是在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后成立的，其主要目的是对俄罗斯发动网络战。据报道，该组织曾攻击莫斯科证券交易所、俄罗斯电网和多个政府网站。2022年，路透社报道称，乌克兰攻击者使用面部识别软件扫描阵亡俄罗斯士兵的面部，并通知其家属。

为什么乌克兰面临核辐射威胁如此重要？

乌克兰尤其脆弱，因为它已经遭受过一次核灾难，而且由于另一座大型核电站周围的冲突，它仍然面临风险。

1986年4月，位于当时的苏联乌克兰共和国境内的切尔诺贝利核电站发生爆炸，放射性物质泄漏。爆炸本身造成数十人死亡，但随后数千人因放射性物质引发的严重健康问题而患病，其中包括甲状腺癌。远在瑞典都能探测到辐射。切尔诺贝利核事故与2011年日本福岛核事故并称为历史上最严重的两起核事故。居民撤离后，切尔诺贝利至今仍是一座空城。

乌克兰扎波罗热地区持续不断的冲突引发了人们对悲剧重演的担忧。俄罗斯部分控制着该地区，包括恩涅尔霍达尔市，欧洲最大的核电站——扎波罗热核电站就坐落于此。

双方多次对对方阵地发动攻击，俄罗斯以乌克兰控制的省会城市扎波罗热为目标，而乌克兰则以俄罗斯控制的地区（包括恩涅尔霍达尔）为目标。

上周，联合国核监督机构——国际原子能机构表示，扎波罗热核电站一名焊工在无人机袭击中丧生。该机构负责人拉斐尔·格罗西呼吁冲突双方保持“最大限度的军事克制”。