The Ukrainian government today announced the launch of its first state infrastructure for AI development, the AI Factory, and efforts to build its own national LLM..
According to the Vice Prime Minister for Innovation, Education, Science and Technology Development — Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, the AI Factory is part of a mission to enter the top 3 countries in terms of AI development and implementation by 2030.
One of the key factors for its implementation is the availability of infrastructure on which AI services will operate, such as computing clusters and data warehouses.
Fedorov shared:
“Soon, Ukraine will have the most modern hardware and software in the world for training and operating our state AI services.
Requests in state AI services will be processed faster, and most importantly, our data will remain within the country. This is critically important for the technological security of Ukraine.”
The AI Factory encompasses:
- Software Ecosystem: Tools for training and deploying models, data preparation interfaces, monitoring systems, and automation frameworks.
- Data Capabilities: Integration with national registries, along with tools for data cleaning, annotation, and transfer — ensuring models have access to high-quality, reliable information. Expertise and Talent:
- Training programs for technical specialists who will design and implement AI solutions across public sector and defence applications.
Technological Infrastructure: High-performance computing clusters (GPUs), water-cooled server rooms, data storage systems, and all the essential hardware to fully power AI development.
The AI Factory will deliver core local services developed by the WINWIN AI Centre of Excellence under the Ministry of Digital Affairs.
WINWIN is the Ukrainian Global Innovation Strategy until 2030, designed to empower governments and international partners to drive economic recovery, strengthen sovereignty, and win peace through breakthrough technologies, open markets, and global collaboration.
Ukraine has AI-powered tools ready or about to launch, including an AI assistant on the Diia portal designed to streamline access to public services — a major leap for its digital state.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation is also deploying AI tools for analysing regulatory acts and translating European legislation, integrating AI into the MRIIA platform, and developing internal AI tools. Its also incorporating AI into defence tech as well and drafting Ukraine’s National AI Strategy, which it aims to complete by year-end.
The need for a sovereign LLM for Ukraine
Ukraine is also creating its own LLM. A domestic LLM allows Ukraine to run services without storing data abroad or in insecure jurisdictions. It also offers great benefits to defence-tech startups.
According to “Ukraine is collecting uniquely rich battlefield data — unlike any other nation — and can leverage an LLM to process it and generate battlefield insights. This is critical from a security perspective.”
The national LLM will be trained on Ukrainian data: history, scientific research, library collections, and other public-sourced materials. Official data will also be included, excluding any sensitive information.
Crucially, this will all be done in accordance with IP laws. Authors will also have the option to donate their works to enrich the model with authentic Ukrainian context.
The LLM will be available to public institutions and businesses to create products and services, advancing both the public and private sectors.
To achieve this, the Ukrainian government is partnering with Kyivstar, the largest Ukrainian mobile operator.
The structured collaboration includes:
- A Coordination Committee to oversee vision and strategy.
- A Technical Board managing architecture, data, and model training.
- An Ethics Board ensures rigorous oversight on data usage and ethical considerations.
Kyivstar, as the operational lead, will form a project office, recruit the team, provide computing resources for preliminary model training, and finance the entire LLM development. No state budget funds are being used.
Post-launch, the model will be accessible to government bodies, research and educational institutions, and civic organisations. After a testing phase, it will be open-sourced — available for businesses and developers to use and build upon.
According to Fedorvo, “Together, our goal is to build a high‑quality, scalable model within approximately nine months.”
Building and maintaining its own AI infrastructure is a cornerstone of Ukraine’s digital sovereignty. It enables the secure development and deployment of AI solutions for citizens, the Defence Forces, and the public sector.
Lead image: Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister for Innovation, Education, Science and Technology Development — Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. Photo: uncredited.
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