NOVEMBER 2024
Understanding the Military
AI Ecosystem of Ukraine
By Kateryna Bondar
Executive Summary
This report is the rst part of a series on military articial intelligence (AI) development and
its application in the war in Ukraine. It will focus on two critical aspects of AI adoption in
Ukraine’s military:
1. The conditions and factors that contributed to military AI development from the beginning of
the war with Russia in 2014
2. The key government institutions and initiatives responsible for driving AI adoption, along with a
summary of their major AI-related initiatives
The summary section below presents key ndings and insights on both of these aspects.
1. AI is in experimental deployment and is overwhelmingly geared toward
supportive functions.
Although AI is frequently discussed in the context of the war in Ukraine, its full deployment on the
battleeld remains limited. Numerous AI-driven capabilities and technologies are being tested along the
frontlines, in long-range strikes within Russian territory, and across multidomain operations, but these
eorts are largely experimental rather than indicative of AI systematically replacing human functions
in warfare. AI currently assumes a predominantly supportive and informational role, and even when
AI capabilities advance and improve, they are not yet implemented in fully autonomous modes on
the battleeld.
2. There is growing government involvement in AI development in Ukraine
through organizational, regulative, and technological initiatives led by various
government stakeholders.
Initially, the development of AI-driven technologies in Ukraine was spearheaded by the private sector
and volunteer initiatives. However, government institutions and agencies have recently begun to
