Copyright kyivpost
Ukraine is not simply leading in defense technologies. In conference halls across the capital, the work of creative minds – collaborating with world-class partners from Silicon Valley to Stockholm – is testing breakthrough developments in the most crucial place on earth. At the WINWIN Summit on Nov. 4, officials, entrepreneurs, and executives gathered to showcase innovations spanning artificial intelligence and agentic government services, autonomous vehicles and agricultural robotics, semiconductor manufacturing and quantum computing, medical diagnostics and cybersecurity intelligence, clean energy and mineral exploration. This wasn’t a venture capital pitch day or a policy think tank. It was a declaration: Ukraine is building an entirely new economy from the ground up, and the world’s most powerful technology companies are betting on it. By the end of the day, seven international cooperation agreements had been signed – not memorandums of understanding that sit in drawers, but working partnerships with delivery timelines. Let’s explore what happened at the WINWIN event – and why it matters far beyond Ukraine’s borders. The announcement: Government as AI agent When Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Prime and Minister of Digital Transformation, took the stage that morning, he came bearing news that surprised even him: Ukraine, he announced, would become the world’s first “agentic state” – a government powered by artificial intelligence that doesn’t just respond to citizen requests but anticipates them, acting proactively to deliver services before they’re even asked for. “We are going to become the first country to introduce an agentic state,” Fedorov said. “This is just the beginning.” The concept, developed with Estonian advisor Luukas Ilves – who helped build Estonia’s pioneering digital government – represents a fundamental rethinking of how states serve their people. Forget navigating bureaucracy through forms and offices. Imagine instead telling an AI assistant: “I need an income certificate,” and having it arrive in your email within seconds. Or better yet: imagine the system knowing you’re eligible for benefits and initiating the process automatically, without requiring you to figure out the bureaucratic maze yourself. Ukraine aims to be among the world’s top three countries in AI integration in the public sector by 2030, transforming every interaction between citizen and state into something as simple as a conversation. The audacity of this ambition becomes even more striking against the backdrop: Ukraine announced this while under active invasion, enduring both kinetic warfare and what Microsoft’s Amy Hogan-Burney later described as relentless cyberattacks. Ukraine accounts for more than 25% of Russia’s total cyber operations, making it Russia’s primary target. Building the future while defending the present – this has become default mode for Ukraine. Forged in crisis: From digital government to digital DNA The agentic state didn’t emerge from a whiteboard exercise. It evolved from Ukraine’s wartime digital transformation – a story that began long before February 2022 but accelerated dramatically once the invasion started. When Valeriya Ionan of the Ministry of Digital Transformation joined six years ago, Ukraine’s digital landscape and where it needed to be “felt like two different planets.” Today, 23 million Ukrainians use Diia, the government’s digital services platform, and Ukraine ranks 5th in the world for digital public services – up from 102nd place in 2018. Then came the war. Within weeks of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine launched digital IDs for those who fled without documents, online aid applications for the displaced, and eRecovery for war-damage compensation. The country that had struggled to digitize driver’s licenses was now creating entirely new systems under bombardment. Ionan summarized the shift perfectly: “Innovation built under bombardment becomes part of our national DNA.” This wasn’t a metaphoric comment. Ukraine now has over 500 drone companies, an entire new sector of the economy creating jobs and expertise. The philosophy that drove this transformation was simple but powerful, borrowed from Minister Fedorov: “Done is better than perfect. Done – while others are still planning – is how you win.” At the summit, this mindset pervaded every conversation. When panelists discussed regulatory frameworks, they weren’t debating whether to innovate – they were showing what they’d already built. When international partners pledged support, they were deepening collaborations already underway. The summit wasn’t aspirational. It was operational. The sovereignty strategy: Three pillars to 2030 Danylo Tsvok, Ukraine’s Chief AI Officer and CEO of the newly formed AI Center of Excellence, laid out the strategic blueprint. For six months, his team had worked with Estonian partners to develop a national AI strategy built on three pillars. First: Integration Across All Levels. AI must be implemented at the national level in state administration, where proactive “anticipatory” government services become the norm; at the enterprise level, where digital systems can interact and optimize industrial processes; and at the individual level, empowering citizens to benefit from AI in daily life. The strategic focus begins with defense and education – defense because it’s essential to technological resilience and victory, education because the world is changing and learning must evolve with it. Second: AI Sovereignty. Ukraine will develop high-quality, locally developed AI accessible within the country, using a hybrid approach that combines global solutions with homegrown technologies. This includes a Ukrainian-language large language model – being developed in partnership with Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest telecommunications operator – and domain-specific models that give Ukraine a competitive edge. The goal isn’t isolation – it’s strategic autonomy through partnership. Third: Activators – Data, Talent, and Infrastructure. Ukraine needs frameworks for responsible data collection and use, massive upskilling and reskilling programs across all sectors, and a sovereign hybrid infrastructure that combines local compute resources with global partner capacities to support research, development, and testing at a global R&D standard. The AI Factory – soon to become Ukraine’s first state-led project for developing and testing AI solutions – will power everything from the AI Assistant in Diia to the AI Tutor on the Mriia educational platform. The targets are concrete and measurable: By 2030, 75% of private-sector companies using AI, 90% of the population using AI daily, 50,000 qualified AI experts across the country, 4 million citizens earning AI-related certificates, 100% of government services enhanced by AI agents, 200 million GPU hours available annually to Ukrainian researchers, and at least 500 Ukrainian AI companies competing globally. Oleksandr Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, framed the transformation in human terms. Government services will no longer look as they used to – citizens will simply tell the system what they need, and a complex AI mechanism will deliver the service clearly, efficiently, and conversationally. He compared it to the first iPhone moment: “People wondered why a phone would have a screen and no buttons.” Once the world sees Ukraine’s agentic government, he argued, it will realize Ukraine is setting a new model for digital governance. The infrastructure alliance: When Silicon Valley meets Kyiv Ukraine’s AI ambitions would remain theoretical without the infrastructure to support them. Over the course of the summit, the scale of international technology partnerships became clear – and the list read like a who’s-who of global innovation. Whereas the defense industry names of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics raise heads for one form of security for Ukraine, in another sector, we see the titans of industry have arrived to work with Ukraine. NVIDIA. Roman Sioda, Enterprise Director for Central and Eastern Europe, announced a strategic partnership to help Ukraine realize its vision of becoming an AI-first nation. The collaboration will involve deep technological collaboration, access to the full NVIDIA AI platform, the sharing of expertise and training, as well as comprehensive architectural reviews. Sioda framed the stakes clearly: “This industrial revolution is about the production of intelligence, and every nation must be able to produce its own. That is why the concept of sovereign AI is so vital.” Google. Anna Bulakh, Director of Government Relations for Ukraine, revealed that Diia AI – the conversational government assistant – runs on Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash model. The story began when Google teams pushed to prioritize underrepresented languages, and Ukraine’s leadership in digital innovation helped make Ukrainian a priority for Gemini development. More than a vendor relationship, Google and Ukraine are co-developing and testing models together. “Ukraine isn’t just consuming technology,” Bulakh said. “It’s helping advance it.” OpenAI. Anna Makanju, Vice President of Global Impact, described Ukraine as “genuinely at the forefront of using advanced AI to improve the lives of its citizens.” She shared projections from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman: Within about a year, AI models may operate like AI research interns, and by 2028, like fully independent researchers. For governments, this means AI that can draft policy, coordinate emergency responses, and proactively qualify citizens for benefits. “The length of tasks AI can complete independently is doubling roughly every seven months,” Makanju noted – a kind of Moore’s Law for AI agents. She also outlined three non-negotiables for any agentic state: Transparency, with clear logs and documentation of AI decision-making; redress and recourse, with simple ways for citizens to appeal decisions; and security and safety, protecting data, defending against adversaries, and testing systems for bias or failure. Microsoft. Amy Hogan-Burney, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, joined remotely to detail Microsoft’s commitment: Over $500 million in support since 2022 through technology assistance and services such as cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity support, and humanitarian aid, including helping migrate critical government data to the cloud to ensure continuity of operations even under relentless attack. She did not sugarcoat the threat environment. Russian state actors have shifted tactics, increasingly outsourcing operations to cyber-mercenary firms and co-opting criminal infrastructure, using commodity malware and simpler techniques that make attribution harder and blur lines of responsibility. Microsoft processes 150 trillion signals daily across its systems – an amount of data only AI can filter effectively. The company has dedicated over 34,000 engineers to security roles, embedding security thinking into every level of corporate decision-making. Cisco. Sergii Martynchuk opened his segment with an AI-generated avatar of himself – his “digital twin” – before stepping onstage in person saying, “My kids said it was somewhere between creepy and cool.” Chris Reeves, Vice President for EMEA, explained Cisco’s role: providing the network infrastructure on which the rest of the world builds and deploys AI. “Just as society has become dependent on the internet, we’ll soon be equally dependent on AI,” Reeves said. Cisco’s AI Readiness Index, surveying over 8,000 business leaders across 30 markets, found that while most recognize AI’s importance, many remain at early integration stages. Through its Networking Academy, Cisco has trained over 5 million students worldwide – including more than 330,000 in Ukraine – with training accessible through the Diia app nationwide. Mistral AI. Audrey Herblin-Stoop, Vice President of Global Public Affairs, joined remotely to deliver a stark warning: “Europe must invest in and champion its own AI. If we don’t own it, we risk becoming an AI colony – and losing our geopolitical influence.” Mistral’s partnership offers Ukraine open and flexible technologies that ensure strategic autonomy – a European alternative to US-dominated platforms. ElevenLabs. One of the seven memorandums signed during the summit formalized cooperation with ElevenLabs, a company developing voice AI technologies. Its solutions will be integrated into Diia, Mriia, and other internal government tools – making the agentic state not just conversational in text, but in voice. Together, these partnerships form an ecosystem of complementary capabilities: NVIDIA for compute infrastructure, Google and OpenAI for cloud-based models, Microsoft for security and continuity, Cisco for network backbone, Mistral for European sovereignty, ElevenLabs for voice interaction, and Ukraine’s own Kyivstar-developed national LLM and AI Factory for on-premise sovereign capabilities. This isn’t dependence on a single vendor – it’s strategic diversification that actually embodies AI sovereignty. Beyond software: The full-stack transformation The summit made clear that Ukraine’s vision extends far beyond software and services. True technological independence requires hardware, materials, and manufacturing – and Ukraine is building those capabilities too. Semiconductors: From Raw Materials to Finished Chips Evgeniy Astakhov, Chairman of the National Semiconductor Association of Ukraine, reminded the audience that every device with an on/off button contains chips – humanity now produces more than one trillion annually. Ukraine once produced nearly 40% of the USSR’s microelectronics, and that heritage can now fuel a modern revival. Ukraine’s semiconductor strategy rests on a critical natural resource advantage: Rare earth elements form less than 1% of a chip’s mass but are essential for production. China currently produces about 99% of the world’s 700 tons of these materials annually, but Ukraine holds around 8.4 million tons in reserves. The roadmap is pragmatic. Rather than attempting to build trillion-dollar mega-fabs immediately, Ukraine will start with cleanrooms at tens of millions of dollars, producing 1,000-1,500 wafers per month – enough to cover domestic demand first, which currently requires importing 40 million chips annually. These facilities can be built underground, made energy-independent, and adapted to defense needs. By 2030, the goal is three semiconductor clusters producing 150,000 wafers per month. Yegor Perelygin, Deputy Minister of Economy, outlined the critical materials strategy: “Most rare elements are by-products. If you don’t develop the principal industries – nickel, titanium, lithium – you won’t get the by-products.” Currently, about 70% of mining output becomes tailings – a huge opportunity to recover scandium and gallium through modular reprocessing. A Ukrainian-American fund is being established to bring market makers to Ukraine with multi-year contracts; protocols are expected by December with investment beginning in January. During the summit, a memorandum between Kyiv School of Economics and the National Semiconductor Association formalized the education and research infrastructure needed to make this happen. As Astakhov concluded: “Ukraine has to become semiconducted again.” Autonomous Vehicles: Robots for a Nation Rebuilding PwC partners Alex Yankovski and Oleksiy Katasonov presented Ukraine’s Autonomous Vehicle Strategy as a response to an unprecedented challenge. Since 2021, Ukraine’s population has significantly declined due to the ongoing war, which displaced millions and redirected much of the workforce to defense needs. Wide adoption of autonomous technologies can help overcome labor shortages while maintaining productivity. The global AV market is projected to exceed $100 billion by 2029, and Ukraine has specific advantages. About 2,000 Ukrainian IT experts already work in the automotive sector, Google and others maintain R&D centers in Ukraine, and the country offers competitive tax and legal incentives through programs like Diia City. Most importantly, Ukraine’s dual-use expertise from defense applications positions it as a leader in civil automation software and AI. Three priority sectors emerged: Agricultural autonomous vehicles – sprayers, combines, seeders to improve efficiency on Ukraine’s vast arable land; autonomous cargo trucks and ships to enable 24/7 operations despite labor shortages; and technology and R&D hubs leveraging IT talent to create solutions for global markets. Medical innovation: From battlefield to bedside The medical innovation panel brought together policymakers, scientists, and entrepreneurs to discuss how Ukraine’s healthcare crisis is accelerating breakthrough solutions. The numbers tell the story: Russia has destroyed or severely damaged over 4,000 medical institutions, drastically affecting access to care. For the first time in independent Ukraine’s history, medical school applications have dropped below one applicant per seat. Mariia Karchevych, Deputy Minister of Health, explained the government’s response: medical “sandboxes” modeled on successful UK, Spanish, and German frameworks. These allow startups to test and certify new medical technologies faster under controlled, regulated conditions while maintaining safety standards. The summit formally announced the launch of the MedTech Sandbox – a regulated environment where innovative medical technologies can be safely tested in clinical settings while maintaining full ethical oversight and data protection. Mykhailo Radutskyi, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada’s Health Committee, emphasized AI’s role in compensating for physician shortages – not replacing doctors, but assisting them. AI-based ECG programs and neurological detection systems help rural areas where specialists are unavailable. When he showed Ukraine’s e-prescription system to Pentagon officials, their response was: “Impossible! We don’t have that.” The economic case for AI in healthcare is compelling. According to recent Ukrainian studies, every dollar invested in prevention saves up to $1,000 in later treatment, and globally, about 75% of diabetes-related costs come from complications that could have been prevented through early diagnosis. Viktor Dosenko, a professor and pathophysiologist who kept his laboratory running through the war, offered a stark assessment of Ukrainian science: “Around 90% of those calling themselves scientists in Ukraine don’t publish in serious international journals. They only appear in local university bulletins.” His prescription: support the 10% producing evidence-based results and connect them with startups. His own lab developed a Ukrainian-made hemostatic material for battlefield bleeding control – now an alternative to NATO’s imported products – entirely without initial government funding. The GutSee Partnership: First Concrete Deliverable Among the seven memorandums signed during the summit, one stood out for its immediate life-saving potential. Through a partnership between Ukraine’s Ministries of Digital Transformation and Health, Feofaniya Hospital, and UK biotech startup GutSee Health, Ukraine will become the first country in Eastern Europe to pilot AI-powered phage therapy – using artificial intelligence to select viruses that fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The technology will be tested first on Ukrainian soldiers and veterans with severe injuries, offering faster, more accessible treatment than traditional antibiotics – which are increasingly ineffective against resistant infections. As Joanna Wiecek of GutSee had emphasized during the panel, antibiotic resistance is a global crisis, but Ukraine’s wartime urgency creates an environment where solutions can be developed and validated faster than anywhere else. What’s tested successfully on the battlefield can then be scaled globally. Proof: The startup ecosystem already delivering Midway through the summit, six Ukrainian startups took the stage for rapid-fire elevator pitches. Together with the companies exhibiting in the Startup Alley, they demonstrated the breadth and maturity of Ukraine’s innovation ecosystem – and more importantly, they showed that Ukrainian innovation extends far beyond defense into every aspect of human life and economic activity. The next generation is an entrepreneurial generation and has spoken loudly. Haiqu builds quantum computing software – “like CUDA for quantum computing,” co-founder Mykola Maksymenko explained. Their platform lets users design, optimize, and run applications on quantum computers – 100 times larger applications using 50 times fewer hardware resources, enabling students to run experiments for a fraction of what IBM or Google charges. Clients include HSBC for financial modeling, GSK for protein binding, and BMW and Airbus for computational fluid dynamics. HowCow developed AI-powered smart collars for dairy cattle – “Apple Watch for cows,” as CIO Oles Kogut described them. Developed with Ukraine’s Institute of Cybernetics and National Institute of Biotechnologies, the collars collect real-time health and behavior data, detecting early signs of illness. The technology is 100% Ukrainian-made, in operational testing, and drawing interest from US partners in California. Also showcasing agricultural innovation was Profeed, which uses AI and IoT to optimize livestock feeding – automating rationing, feeding schedules, and farm analytics. After exhibiting at CES 2025, Profeed represents Ukraine’s quiet revolution in agricultural efficiency, showing how the country’s digital transformation extends from government services to farm management. SOC Prime was born in Kyiv 11 years ago this month, founder Andrii Bezverkhyi noted. The company’s threat-detection intelligence platform is used across 155 countries, and 99% of what they build is shared for free. Most of their Ukrainian operations now provide pro bono cybersecurity protection to national institutions defending the country. As Geoffrey Hinton, the “godfather of AI,” said, cybersecurity is the number one risk in the age of AI. Deus Robotics, founded in Kyiv in 2018 by Pavlo Pikulin, operates in a complementary space – building vendor-agnostic AI systems for warehouse robotics now deployed in over 50 countries. With recent funding of $6.6 million and partnerships including DPD UK, Deus shows how Ukrainian logistics intelligence is orchestrating robots across continents. CheckEye, led by CEO Kyrylo Goncharuk, developed an AI platform for early disease detection via retinal imaging – achieving 93% sensitivity and 86% specificity in diabetic retinopathy detection. After raising $700,000 and conducting screenings in Odesa and Chernihiv during the war – often during blackouts or in field clinics – CheckEye embodies how AI vision literally saves human vision. The company is now scaling to the EU market. But perhaps no startup at the summit captured the intersection of war, innovation, and human dignity quite like Esper Bionics. Founded in 2019 by Dmytro Gazda, Anna Belevantseva, and Ihor Ilchenko, the company builds AI-driven bionic prosthetics. Their flagship Esper Hand uses EMG sensors and cloud learning to create what’s among the most advanced prosthetics on the market – FDA and BDC approved in the United States, government-authorized across Ukraine, and currently pursuing European certification. “Our flagship product is the Esper Hand – the first wearable bionic device we developed,” explained their team during a conversation at the summit. “It’s a part of the prosthetic socket system, directly integrated with the human body.” Then Roman Yaroshenko, the company’s Founders’ Associate, emphasized that the hand is just the beginning. “We’re building a broader ecosystem – a suite of devices and analytical systems designed for human augmentation and health monitoring. This includes data analytics tools that can help track health conditions and even prevent illnesses.” The prosthetics have an advantage for development: they offer ample space to embed sensors. “You might compare it to an Apple Watch – which tracks basic health data – but our system is far more customizable and precise,” Roman explained. “For prosthetic users, integrating larger or more complex sensors isn’t an issue, which allows us to experiment and innovate faster. Over time, we plan to miniaturize the sensors and transition toward broader consumer use.” The company’s vision is ambitious: creating what they call “a digital layer for the human body” – collecting biosignals for preventive medicine and longevity research. With production goals of 500 units per year, Esper is seeking venture investors who understand this isn’t just robotics but the foundation for a medical AI ecosystem. “It’s tragic but true that war and injury have accelerated innovation here,” Roman acknowledged. “Yet these technologies genuinely change lives – for veterans, people with limb loss, stroke survivors, and those with neurological conditions. Our mission is to restore mobility, collect better data, and improve lives at scale.” Alongside Esper, 3D Metal Tech – founded in Kyiv in 2020 – is printing recovery through titanium 3D printing for medical implants. Their ISO-certified personalized orthopedic and cranio-maxillofacial implants, created from CT scans, serve both civilians and soldiers. The company represents the MedTech and DefenseTech crossover – transforming battlefield trauma into precision recovery. Ovul, co-founded by CTO Ihor Kovalenko and Serhii Zatsarynin, created the world’s first saliva-based fertility tracker. The compact device scans a drop of saliva and uses AI to recognize estrogen patterns – like fern leaves – invisible to the naked eye, achieving 97% clinical accuracy with a patent and serial production underway. Infertility affects one in six couples worldwide, contributing to falling birth rates. An IT Arena 2025 finalist, Ovul is raising a $1 million seed round to scale sales and complete regulatory approval. The startup shows how Ukrainian innovation extends beyond war and defense into life, family, and future – giving a global, compassionate dimension to the country’s tech renaissance. Sirocco Energy has created a new generation of wind technology for businesses. More than 30% of businesses worldwide pay over 20 cents per kilowatt for electricity. Sirocco’s turbines work even at 5 meters (16.4 feet) per second wind speed, with minimal noise, low vibration, and a small footprint – generating power at just 4-8 cents per kilowatt. Led by Chief Growth Officer Nazariy Mirchuk, they’re raising $1.5 million at a $10 million pre-money valuation to prepare for commercial pilots in 2026. Complementing this, Melt Water – operating since 2014 – creates purification systems via freezing, producing “structured Tala Voda” without chemicals or filters through portable and stationary devices. It’s clean tech from a country scarred by contamination and war, linking water resilience to reconstruction. Beholder, founded by Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree Daniil Lubkin, uses satellite imaging and AI to help geologists locate mineral deposits more precisely. Only 25% of geological explorations are successful currently. Beholder’s AI inversion model literally lets them “see through the earth” 3-4 kilometers (1.9-2.5 miles) deep. The gap between what humanity extracts from the earth and what we need for our devices is $17 trillion – without increasing production, we can’t power AI, green transition, or even smartphones. Ukraine recently signed a resource agreement with the US, and Beholder’s technology can accelerate that development. Lubkin closed with characteristic Ukrainian directness: “If we want Ukraine to be truly innovative, we need to dig smarter, not harder. So – let’s drill, baby!” The education technology sector was represented by Softbook, a Ukrainian EdTech platform for creating online schools and digital learning. Through their LMS and Cloud products – white-labeled, easy course-building tools – Softbook supports small and medium education ventures, keeping teachers and students connected through blackouts, displacement, and rebuilding. Sensorama Lab, founded around 2016-17 by Serhii Tereshchenko and Kyrylo Pokutnyi, has built over 100 XR/VR/AR projects across industrial training, education, and entertainment. Their XR Training platform with analytics dashboards turns education and industrial training into immersive experience – preparing workers and veterans alike for the reconstruction era. Even the intersection of art and neuroscience found expression. Wantent, founded in 2019 by Kyiv Polytechnic alumnus Oleksiy Shaldenko, uses AI to read micro-expressions, gaze, and emotion to test viewer reactions. As the platform pivots to SaaS in 2025, it represents Ukrainian AI decoding human emotion – potentially influencing film, advertising, and civic messaging in what might be called a post-propaganda age. Together, these companies formed a vivid snapshot of Ukraine’s innovation ecosystem – fast, human-centered, and already reaching far beyond national borders. What stood out most was not the technology alone, but the attitude behind it: confident, collaborative, and unwilling to wait for better times to build the future. From quantum computing to prosthetics, from farm management to fertility tracking, from warehouse robots to water purification – Ukrainian startups are solving global problems while their country defends its existence. The capital question: Financing the future Innovation requires capital, and the summit’s financing panel brought together leaders from the World Bank, BNP Paribas, and Swedfund to discuss how global institutions are backing Ukraine’s transformation. Maria Claudia Pachon of the World Bank emphasized building “innovation-driven economies” through policy, infrastructure, and inclusive growth – not just technology deployment but systemic transformation. Laurent Dupuch of BNP Paribas reframed artificial intelligence as “Beneficial Intelligence,” arguing that technology should empower people, not replace them. Olena Smyrnova of Swedfund outlined Sweden’s patient-capital approach, supporting both private companies and municipal projects that modernize Ukraine’s infrastructure and digital capacity. The consensus was clear: trust, transparency, and governance are now the real currency of investment. As Smyrnova put it, innovation isn’t just about apps or accelerators – it’s about resilience, about systems that keep running when the lights go out. Perhaps the most compelling investment thesis came from Shruti Mehrotra, founding partner and CEO of Syla Capital. Over three years of war, Ukraine has become “the most dynamic engine of defense-tech innovation on Earth,” driven not by defense contractors but by startups and engineers who had never worked in the military before. Entrepreneurs who once built consumer products like Petcube have created a rapid, adaptive ecosystem that now outpaces traditional defense industries worldwide. Mehrotra urged Ukraine and its partners to channel this wartime innovation back into civilian industries – robotics, logistics, AI, autonomy – to fuel long-term economic growth. By combining Ukraine’s unmatched speed and creativity with global R&D capital and market access, she envisions a self-sustaining “innovation flywheel” that could redefine Europe’s competitiveness. “This isn’t aid,” she concluded. “This is the future. Ukrainian engineers deserve to lead not only in defense but in building prosperity and peace.” Implementation: WINWIN as living framework Late in the afternoon, Nataliia Petrova, Lead of the WINWIN Project Office, took the stage to address the skepticism that greets every new government strategy. “Why do we need another strategy?” she asked the audience. “Trust me, I’ve heard it many times, and it’s fair. Many documents are written but never implemented.” Her answer: “WINWIN is different. We’re already in the implementation phase – and we want you on board, so it’s meaningful not just for us, but for you.” The strategy isn’t a ministry project – it’s a unifying platform bringing together government, private sector, and international partners. Ukraine has long been under-modernized, with R&D underfunded and GDP spending on innovation lagging behind even regional averages. But in the past four years, Ukraine has made a leapfrog – catching up and even leading in many areas. WINWIN identifies fourteen key directions – DefenseTech, MedTech, BioTech, GreenTech, EdTech, AgriTech, AI, XR, AUV (autonomous systems), Semiconductors, Secure Cyberspace, SpaceTech, GovTech, and Fluid Economy – all interconnecting to serve each other’s needs in one ecosystem. Implementation mechanisms include regulatory sandboxes, blended finance, open innovation platforms, and sectoral Centers of Excellence. Many pilot projects are already underway, including: AgroLab, co-created with the private sector to solve real agricultural challenges; Science City, designed to reconnect science and innovation, attract and retain talent, and turn scientific output into practical business solutions; the Semiconductor Strategy with accompanying policy packages; and the AI Strategy shaping national priorities. The seven memorandums signed during the summit weren’t symbolic – they included a trilateral agreement between Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Estonia; partnerships with University College London for research collaboration; and agreements with Chemonics Group UK Limited for implementation support. Petrova’s closing framed the transformation in philosophical terms: Ukraine is moving from defense toward relevance – not just surviving, but leading. “We don’t aim merely to be a ‘startup nation.’ We aim to be a smart, growing nation – grounded, ambitious, and globally competitive.” Her final line: “You’re not passengers – you’re participants.” Culture and clusters: The ecosystem mindset As the summit drew to a close, Mike Butcher – veteran European tech journalist and founder of Pathfounders – delivered a characteristically blunt assessment of what Ukraine needs to compete globally. Europe’s challenge, he explained, is fragmentation: “Too many countries, too many rules, too many languages, and a lot of red tape. Silicon Valley, by contrast, is one big single market. You can drive up and down Highway 101 and hit hundreds of tech companies.” Butcher’s prescription: state-private cooperation, early AI education, equity culture that creates angel investors, and unapologetic self-promotion. He exclaimed, “China is teaching six-year-olds AI. Six!” But then he encouraged, “Americans celebrate themselves – again and again. Europeans and Ukrainians need more of that confidence. Tell your success stories loudly.” Most importantly: think globally from day one. Estonia has no real home market, so every startup there must think globally from inception. In contrast, bigger countries sometimes get stuck serving only their local market. His advice to Ukrainians: “Don’t just build for Ukraine. Build for the world.” Take UiPath, founded by Daniel Dines in Romania. Does anyone care he’s Romanian? No. They care that his product solved a problem. On clusters: London has “Silicon Roundabout,” Berlin has “Silicon Allee,” Paris has “Silicon Sentier.” Kyiv and Lviv can – and should – be on that same map. When you can map your startups, investors can navigate. He closed with characteristic flair: “If you’re in startups – you’re sexy. Own it. Tech people are sexy. So go out there, be proud, and build something that changes the world.” The stakes: From AI colony to AI nation Throughout the summit, speakers returned to a central theme: sovereignty in the age of AI. Mistral’s Audrey Herblin-Stoop warned that Europe risks becoming an “AI colony” if it doesn’t champion its own technologies. Volodymyr Brusilovsky of UNDP put it even more starkly: “If AI is as transformative as the Internet was in the 2000s, then any country without its own AI competence will be dependent on others.” Ukraine’s response is neither isolationist nor purely commercial – it’s strategic partnership at scale. Google’s Anna Bulakh captured it best: “Estonia branded itself as a ‘cyber nation.’ Ukraine can become known as an ‘AI nation.’” The education and workforce transition will be critical. Cisco’s Chris Reeves emphasized that every technological revolution replaces some jobs but creates more new ones, and the countries that succeed will be those that reallocate labor from old to new industries most effectively – requiring large-scale digital education. Microsoft’s Amy Hogan-Burney, even while detailing the unprecedented cyber threats Ukraine faces, ended on a note of optimism: “Together, we can turn adversity into innovation – and innovation into security and opportunity.” Conclusion: Building while others plan By late afternoon, the conference hall had mostly emptied. A few founders lingered near the Startup Alley booths, exchanging contact information. Upstairs, breakout sessions on the AI strategy draft continued – technical discussions about data frameworks and regulatory alignment that would shape implementation over the coming months. Seven signed agreements, one major announcement, and dozens of partnerships formalized or deepened. Not bad for a Tuesday in Kyiv. The document packages distributed to attendees ran to hundreds of pages: sectoral strategies for semiconductors and autonomous vehicles, the draft AI roadmap, pilot project specifications. These aren’t vision statements. They’re work plans with timelines, budget requirements, and responsible parties identified. December deadlines for the Ukrainian-American critical materials fund. January investment targets. European certification processes underway. Commercial pilots scheduled for 2026. What made the summit unusual wasn’t the optimism – startup conferences trade in that – but the operational detail. When Yegor Perelygin discussed rare earth extraction from mining tailings, he cited specific percentages and recovery processes. When PwC outlined the autonomous vehicle strategy, they included infrastructure assessments and regulatory roadmaps. When medical officials described the MedTech Sandbox, they explained certification pathways and ethical oversight mechanisms. Estonia became a cyber nation by building e-governance infrastructure that actually worked. Ukraine is attempting something more ambitious: an entire economic transformation executed in parallel with active defense of the country itself. Whether that’s possible remains to be seen. But after a day of presentations, it’s clear the attempt is already underway. The summit ended with a moment of silence for fallen defenders – a reminder that exists in every Ukrainian gathering. Then attendees filed out into early evening Kyiv, where the next air alert could come in an hour or a week, and where entrepreneurs will keep building either way. Mike Butcher’s final line hung in the air: “Own a problem no one else is solving – and you win.” Ukraine has owned its problems. Whether the world invests in the solutions depends on what happens next.
