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Ukraine said on Sunday it suspected its air raid alert system had been compromised, after baseless alerts of a radiation threat appeared on the app.
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And hours later, Russia also announced its emergency warnings app came under a “massive cyberattack” on Monday, in an apparent exchange of blows as their longest truce came to an end.
Moscow’s emergencies ministry said hackers posted “false information” on the app, which is designed to warn the public of incoming drone attacks and other threats.
The cyberattacks came as the longest truce of the war, limited to Ukraine’s eastern Kherson region, ended on Sunday after Russia refused the offer of an extension, according to Kyiv.
Moscow did not immediately say who was behind the attack on its app, while Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications SPRAVDI blamed the hack it suffered on Russia.
The rare pause in fighting, brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump and which began early Tuesday, had enabled a humanitarian mission to the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky as the war grinds through its fifth year.
“The ceasefire, which was in effect from 27 October- 1 November, has ended,” Ukraine’s Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said.
He called the temporary truce “an important step in our joint humanitarian efforts” with Russia.
US-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine are set to resume this month, having been effectively frozen since the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran in February.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyyy said on Sunday his country would stop hitting Russian oil refineries, as US counterpart Donald Trump has demanded, if Washington provided Kyiv with powerful Patriot interceptor missiles.
Raid alert app hack
Kherson regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin warned local people to be particularly vigilant when the ceasefire ended and to “respond immediately to warnings about Russian attacks”.
“The Air Alarm application has probably been subjected to hostile interference,” Ukraine’s air force said in a message. “There is no radiation threat.”
Air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat confirmed to the AFP news agency that the app had been hacked.
Hours later, Russia’s emergencies ministry said its teams were working to fix a “massive cyberattack” which was “enabling attackers to send false information to the public”.
Oil attacks
Russia and Ukraine exchanged strikes on Sunday.
Russia said a drone had struck an “industrial enterprise” east of Moscow overnight, with Ukrainian media reporting that Kyiv had attacked the Kstovo oil refinery.
Kyiv has repeatedly struck Russian oil and gas sites, in what it says is fair retaliation for Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Trump has been pressing Kyiv to stop the attacks, blaming them for rising diesel costs that analysts attribute to the Iran war.
Zelenskyy said on Fox News on Sunday that he told Trump and his team: “If you want us not to attack Russia’s refineries, they have not to attack our energy system.”
“Another alternative, give us Patriot missiles,” he said.
Ukraine’s energy ministry reported fresh power outages across the country Sunday, including in Kyiv, following Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Additional sources • AFP
