Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, impacting the lives of thousands of men, women and children in horrific ways. People in many countries responded by mobilizing to help and support the people in Ukraine. Bernard Moerdler, who lives in Israel, responded by creating his new project, UASA or Ukraine Siren Alerts. UASA is helping Ukrainians and people outside the country stay updated on air raid alerts as they are activated during Russia’s ongoing invasion. While there is a Ukrainian mobile app available for siren alerts, it is currently only available in Ukraine.
Created at the beginning of the 2022 Ukraine-Russia war, UASA is inspired by and modeled after Israel’s quick response to rocket attacks, the ‘Red Alert’ warning system.
In Israel, rocket and air raid alerts show up publicly on official and unofficial apps and channels and on TV. Anyone can see where alerts are being activated as they happen.
“The project first began with my girlfriend, who is from Ukraine,” Moerdler said. “When the conflict began, we discussed her family’s situation in Ukraine extensively and determined that there is no compelling way to alert people of sirens in or outside of Ukraine. The current system in Ukraine is area-specific and location-locked. If you have family members there, you will not be able to see if a siren is sounding, but instead will have to wait for mainstream media reports.
“In addition,” Moerdler continued, “if you live in Ukraine but in Lviv and want to see what is happening with your family in Kyiv, you cannot get alerts. After living in Israel for quite some time, I have come to appreciate the robustness and effectiveness of our alert system. Therefore, I decided to forge ahead and attempt to make something similar and as a result, UASA was born.”
The platform uses data directly from municipalities that broadcast alerts internally via Telegram and their own websites to alert people of incoming attacks. UASA automatically posts alerts on its social media platforms based on this data. Soon UASA will have its own site where users will be able to subscribe to notifications for their region and be texted or emailed when an alert occurs. There is an interactive map for users to see where recent alerts have sounded.The site will have a better one but the current one can be accessed here: https://UASA.io/map.
The program is used by many popular journalists around the world and has over 8,000 followers since its launch at the beginning of the conflict. UASA is currently operating on Twitter, Facebook and Telegram.
“I have heard so many stories of how UASA has helped people stay in touch with their families,” Moerdler said. “In addition, UASA has helped people on the ground get an idea of where the threats lie.”
He shared stories about how UASA platforms have helped people. From someone in Nizhyn: “Takes us less than five minutes out of bed; everyone grabs what he has to, plus two cats and a dog [and goes] down to the potato cellar.” Someone else shared: “I first learned of the UASA application from Twitter and I cannot live without it! The service has been instrumental to myself and family as it allows us to receive the alerts in areas that do not have physical sirens installed. We have also subscribed to the Telegram channel to allow us to receive alerts in other areas and notify our friends and family who are unable to hear the alerts. This application provides a crucial service to Ukrainians and potentially saves lives daily.”
“This has been my goal all along,” Moerdler said, “to assist people. My hope is to continue the project and get the word out there about it.”
UASA is a nonprofit. People are not charged and Moerdler funded his project entirely on his own. You can donate to UASA by going to https://givebutter.com/UASA. Your donations will help to keep the service running by paying for UASA’s server infrastructure. Donations will also be used to help develop new solutions for UASA such as a website and future app.
For more information: https://linktree.com/uasa.
Susan R. Eisenstein is a longtime Jewish educator, passionate about creating special, innovative activities for her students. She is also passionate about writing about Jewish topics and about Israel. She has two master’s degrees and a doctorate in education from Columbia University.
