Ukraine suspects nationwide air raid alert app has been hacked

Ukraine's air force said Sunday it suspected the country's air raid alert system had been hacked.

"The Air Alarm application has probably been subjected to hostile interference," the force said in a message. "There is no radiation threat! Stay calm and follow our updates on our channel."

Contacted by AFP to establish if the application had been hacked, air force spokesperson Yuriy Ignat said: "Yes, it has been."

The announcement came minutes after the end of the truce between Moscow and Kyiv in the eastern region of Kherson. The localised ceasefire, which started on Tuesday, was the longest of the war.

Read more Ceasefire in Ukraine's Kherson region ends after Russia refuses extension

"Currently, the information broadcast (on this application) about threat levels does not correspond to reality," the Ukrainian Centre for Countering Disinformation warned in a statement.

The app is used across Ukraine to warn people in real time of the threat of air strikes from Russia. People often have only minutes to find shelter in the case of, for example, a ballistic missile attack.

SPRAVDI, Ukraine's Centre for Strategic Communications, blamed Russia for the hack in a post on its X account.

A separate app, which deals specifically with the Ukrainian capital, is still working normally, the Kyiv city authorities said.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)