Russia said its emergency alert app had been subjected to a "massive cyberattack," hours after Ukraine also reported a hack of its air strike warning systems, just as the longest truce between the two warring countries ended.
Moscow's Emergencies Ministry said hackers had posted "false information" on the app , designed to warn the public of incoming drone strikes and other threats. Hours earlier, Ukraine said it suspected its air raid warning system had been hacked after unfounded warnings of a radiation threat appeared on the app.
The cyber attacks came as the longest truce of the war, limited to Ukraine's eastern Kherson region, ended yesterday after Russia, according to Kiev, rejected an offer to extend it.
Moscow did not immediately disclose who was behind the attack on its app, while the Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications (Spravdi) attributed the hack to Russia. The rare lull in fighting, brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump and beginning last Tuesday, allowed for a humanitarian mission to the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky .
"The ceasefire, in effect from October 27 to November 1, has ended," said Dmytro Lubinets, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Ukrainian Parliament. He called the temporary truce "an important step in our joint humanitarian efforts" with Russia.
US-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine will resume this month, having been effectively frozen since the US and Israel launched joint strikes against Iran in February. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would stop targeting Russian oil refineries—as his US counterpart Donald Trump has demanded—if Washington supplied Kiev with powerful Patriot interceptor missiles.
(Unioneonline)
