KYIV/MOSCOW: Ukraine and Russia said their public emergency alert applications were targeted by cyberattacks over the weekend, resulting in the dissemination of false information to users. Ukraine’s Air Force said on Sunday that the country’s public air raid alert application had been subjected to what it described as “hostile interference” or “enemy influence.” “The Air Alarm application has probably been subjected to hostile interference,” the Air Force said in a statement on Telegram, urging the public to remain calm and rely on official updates. Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat later confirmed that the application had been hacked. According to Ukrainian authorities, the app briefly displayed false warnings for Kyiv and other regions, including nuclear and chemical threat alerts, reports of street combat, and an erroneous message claiming Russia had deployed its Oreshnik hypersonic missile. “The information being broadcast about threat levels does not correspond to reality,” Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation said. The abnormal alerts were later removed. Ukraine’s Ministry for Digital Transformation said the application itself was not operating normally, but other public warning channels remained functional, including air raid sirens. Authorities in Kyiv said a separate alert application serving the capital continued to operate normally. The air raid alert app is widely used across Ukraine to provide real-time warnings of missile and drone attacks, often giving residents only minutes to seek shelter. SPRAVDI, Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications, blamed Russia for the incident, though no independent confirmation was immediately available. In a separate incident, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said on Monday that its mobile application had been hit by a “massive cyberattack.” “Attention! The mobile application of the Ministry of Emergencies of Russia has been subjected to a massive cyberattack, enabling attackers to send false information to the public,” the ministry said on Telegram. The app is designed to notify users of air raid warnings, incoming drone attacks and other emergency threats. Russia’s state news agency TASS reported that the cyberattack allowed false messages to be distributed through the application. It was not immediately clear whether the incidents in Ukraine and Russia were connected. The reports highlight the growing role of cyber operations alongside conventional military activity in the more than four-year conflict between the two countries.