Kathrine Frich
One screenshot shared on social media showed an alert sent to residents in the Voronezh region at 2:47 a.m.
Most of us rely on phone notifications to keep up with the day.
When an official emergency alert pops up on a dark screen in the middle of the night, the panic is instant.
For thousands of people this week, that sudden chime brought a terrifying message.
Middle of the night
According to the Daily Express and news agency UNN, a Ukrainian resistance group called ATESH claims it broke into the official app for Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry.
The partisan group operates inside Russia and in occupied parts of Ukraine. In the early hours of Monday, November 2, they allegedly pushed out fake warnings of an incoming nuclear strike.
One screenshot shared on social media showed an alert sent to residents in the Voronezh region at 2:47 a.m. It claimed nuclear warheads were flying toward every part of the country.
The blunt message told citizens to grab three weeks of food and head for the nearest basement, adding that “otherwise you’re f-. While the hack has not been independently verified, the Daily Express noted that Russian news outlets and local officials later confirmed someone had breached the ministry’s system.
Tit for tat online
The overnight stunt did not happen in a vacuum. Just hours earlier on Sunday evening, users of Ukraine’s “Air Raid Alert” app began getting bizarre warnings of their own. According to UNN, those fake pop-ups warned of street fighting, chemical weapons, and radiation leaks.
Ukrainian authorities quickly stepped in to calm the public.
The Kyiv City State Administration told residents there was no radiation danger in the capital, and confirmed the official “Kyiv Digital” app was still working normally. Officials suspect outside hackers tampered with the alert service, which reportedly prompted ATESH to hit back.
Billions at risk
Digital meddling like this reaches far beyond Eastern Europe. According to The Mirror, a cyber risk study by insurers at Moody’s found that Vladimir Putin’s regime is behind up to 80% of financial losses from state-backed digital attacks against the UK.
Labour MP Graeme Downie, who commissioned the study, said ordinary citizens are now paying a “hidden Putin tax” that could cost £100 per person in a major breach.
He urged the government to take a stronger stance against Moscow’s hackers.
“A single Russia-linked cyberattack could cost the UK more than £4 billion. That’s based on a serious but realistic attack, the sort with roughly a one-in-ten chance of happening in any given year,” Downie said, as reported by The Mirror.
