President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Ukrainian hackers hacked the Russian Emergencies Ministry (MES) app on the night of November 2. At that time, Russians received warnings about a nuclear strike and calls to hide in basements.
He said this in an interview with PBS News.
The President noted that this was a response to the hacking of the Ukrainian “Air Alert” application that same night, through which fake messages about a nuclear and chemical threat were sent to Ukrainians.
According to Zelensky, the attack against the Ukrainian application was one of hundreds and thousands of similar attacks that the Russians had previously carried out against the banking, pension system, social assistance system, and many other services for the civilian population of Ukraine.
"I have repeatedly emphasized that we are only responding to their attacks. So when it became quite obvious to all our citizens, specialists, and intelligence that this was a targeted attack on their part against our people, against the civilian population, we — of course — responded," the president said.
When asked directly by a journalist whether this meant that Ukraine had hacked the Russian system in response, Zelensky replied: "Yes, absolutely. We just responded to the attack.”
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