Readers of the Ukrainian English-language newspaper Kyiv Independent received an email claiming that a nuclear warhead had been launched at Kyiv. The editorial office said that one of its systems had been hacked. Russian hackers were likely behind the attack.
Readers of the Ukrainian English-language newspaper Kyiv Independent received an email claiming that a nuclear warhead had been launched at Kyiv. The editorial office said that one of its systems had been hacked. Russian hackers were likely behind the attack.
This is reported by Hromadske.
The incident came to light after journalist Ostap Yarysh published a screenshot of a suspicious letter, which claimed in Russian that "Zelensky and Putin have united" and that a nuclear warhead had been launched at the Ukrainian capital.
Seems like @KyivIndependent was hacked by the Russians. Their newsletter subscribers just received an email in Russian saying, “Zelenskyy launched a nuclear warhead on Kyiv.” pic.twitter.com/icn8pKvvh1
— Ostap Yarysh (@OstapYarysh) November 3, 2026
Kyiv Independent editor-in-chief Olga Rudenko later addressed readers and explained that the editorial office had nothing to do with this mailing list. According to her, the attackers gained access to one of the publication's systems. They also tried to publish similar messages directly on the Kyiv Independent website, but the editorial office managed to delete them.
The editor-in-chief also recalled a similar incident with the Air Alert application, whose users received false messages about nuclear and chemical dangers on November 1. In her opinion, the goal of such attacks is to sow panic and undermine trust in information sources.
Earlier, dev.ua wrote that the Air Alert application was subjected to a cyberattack. Users received fake notifications about a radiation threat, a chemical attack, and street fighting in Kyiv.
The developers later explained that the attackers gained unauthorized access to the operator interface, through which information about threats enters the system.
