Ukraine will prioritize artificial intelligence systems it can run on its own infrastructure over models that stay under a foreign provider’s control, a senior government official told Reuters.
A policy shaped by sovereignty concerns
Roman Kyslyi, Chief AI Officer at Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, said the approach favors “on-premise” deployments and effectively limits reliance on the flagship, remote-only models from Anthropic and OpenAI. The shift follows a recent US government order restricting access to some of Anthropic’s most powerful models, an episode Kyslyi said “confirms that AI sovereignty isn’t just a defensive talking point, it’s a necessity.”
“The model is essentially a commodity,” Kyslyi added, saying Kyiv would work with any provider willing to let Ukraine deploy and control the technology on its own terms, regardless of where the model originates.
From Gemini to a homegrown model
Ukraine’s government-services app, Diia, currently runs its AI assistant on Google’s Gemini through servers based in the European Union, provided at no cost. Officials strip personal data before sending queries, since they “don’t control those models,” and describe the Gemini setup as an interim fix.
To replace it, Ukraine is building its own large language model with telecom operator Kyivstar, based on Google’s open-weight Gemma family and adapted for the Ukrainian language and public administration. The ministry says it also evaluated other open alternatives, including Mistral’s models and OpenAI’s GPT-OSS release, before settling on Gemma for its performance parity with closed, remote-only systems. The homegrown model is slated for release this autumn, for use across government services, private businesses, and the military.
Part of a wider pattern
Ukraine’s move echoes a broader unease among governments outside the US about depending on AI infrastructure that a foreign provider — or its home government — can restrict on short notice, a concern that has gained traction since Washington’s export restrictions rattled Anthropic’s customers earlier this year.