This article is authored by Valeriya Ionan, Deputy Minister for European Integration at the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.

While many countries talk about digital transformation, Ukraine has implemented it under the harshest conditions imaginable – pandemic, full-scale war, economic pressure, and systemic disruption – and succeeded.

In just five years, Ukraine has built one of the world's most advanced e-government ecosystems, rising from 102nd position in 2018 to 5th in 2024 in the EGDI ranking by the UN for digital services. The Diia super app serves over 22 million users — more than half of Ukraine's population. This didn't happen by accident, nor did it start with the urgency of war. It began with a vision: President Zelenskyy's 2019 campaign promise to build a "state in a smartphone."

This vision led to the creation of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, with Mykhailo Fedorov appointed as Ukraine's first Deputy Prime Minister for Digital Transformation. His mandate has since expanded to include innovation, education, science, and technology, reflecting digitalization's central role in Ukraine's development strategy.

A Structure Built for Speed and Impact

Mykhailo Fedorov assembled a team of young technocrats, including me, from the private sector, with deputies leading critical areas like IT development, public services, digital infrastructure, and European integration. A network of Chief Digital Transformation Officers (CDTOs) across ministries and local governments ensures coherent, fast, and citizen-oriented digital governance. This is one of the cornerstones of Ukraine’s success. 

The Digital Transformation Committee in Parliament provides legal momentum. Together, these mechanisms create a comprehensive digital engine that is transforming government services into a true “lovemark” for citizens.

The Diia Ecosystem: Beyond an App

Under Fedorov's leadership, the Diia ecosystem has evolved into a comprehensive philosophy of governance:

• Diia App: The state-in-a-smartphone, offering 30+ digital documents, digital signature, and 40+ essential services (the number is constantly growing)
• Diia Portal: More than 130 online government services accessible from anywhere
• Diia.Business: Support for entrepreneurs, from grants to expert advice
• Diia.Education: Digital literacy programs that have reached 2.6 million Ukrainians
• Diia.City: A specialized legal and tax environment helping 1,700+ IT companies thrive
• Diia.Engine: An open-source low-code tool enabling agencies to build digital services rapidly

Digital Resilience Under Fire

When the full-scale invasion against Ukraine began in 2022, many expected Ukrainian government systems to collapse. Instead, the digital infrastructure not only withstood the shock, but it also expanded in real time.

The Ministry of Digital Transformation immediately shifted to wartime implementation, transforming Diia from a convenience into a critical tool of national resilience. Within days, weeks, and months, lots of new services were launched, including:

• eAssistance: Delivering financial support to millions of displaced citizens
• eVorog: Enabling secure citizen reporting of enemy movements
• eRecovery: Streamlining housing repair aid and property claims
• eMarriage: Allowing couples to marry remotely — named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2024

Despite missile strikes and constant air alerts, blackouts, cyberattacks, and forced displacement, Diia has remained operational — providing essential services, safeguarding civil rights, and mobilizing civic participation.

From National Solution to Global Platform

In April 2024, Ukraine released the Diia platform as open-source software via GitHub in multiple programming languages. This landmark in digital diplomacy offers governments worldwide access to proven, citizen-centric solutions for public service delivery. 

Ukraine's ability to innovate under pressure laid the foundation for WINWIN — Ukraine's Global Innovation Strategy through 2030. This strategy treats innovation as a core function of the state, not a side project, establishing conditions where innovation can flourish: speed, safety, flexibility, and relevance.

WINWIN focuses on (i) creating specialized innovation platforms in priority sectors, (ii) removing regulatory barriers that slow experimentation, and (iii) building direct connections between government, business, and developers.

European Digital Resilience: Lessons from Ukraine

Ukraine's experience offers practical lessons for accelerating Europe's digital transformation. But first, let's imagine several scenarios:

If a cross-border disaster strikes multiple regions simultaneously, then a unified alert system developed through a public-private partnership could deliver multilingual emergency notifications that function even when devices are in silent mode, ensuring all affected populations receive timely instructions regardless of their location. In Ukraine, we achieved this with Air Alert — a system developed in a few days with private sector partners (Ajax and Stfalcon) that now serves millions.

If misinformation spreads during a catastrophic event, then verified information delivery systems can provide threat-specific instructions from authorized sources, preventing confusion and ensuring consistent emergency messaging across affected areas. In Ukraine, we embedded official TV and radio broadcasts directly into our Diia super app, creating a single trusted source of information.

If mass displacement occurs due to extreme weather events, then digital humanitarian coordination systems can match affected populations with available resources, automatically identifying vulnerable individuals and connecting them with appropriate support services. Diia's eAssistance feature delivered financial support to millions of displaced citizens.

If critical infrastructure fails during a crisis, then digital business continuity platforms can maintain economic activity by providing alternative payment mechanisms and facilitating emergency supply chain coordination when traditional systems are unavailable. Ukraine implemented this through Diia's assistance programs, grants distribution, and Diia.Business consultancy services.

If government and private sectors collaborate with a crisis-driven mindset, then digital transformation can happen in days rather than years, creating resilient systems that adapt to evolving threats and scale rapidly to serve millions of users. The blueprint exists—it only requires the vision to implement these systems before the next crisis arrives.

I think that Ukraine's digital transformation success hinges on three critical elements often missing from traditional government digitalization efforts: speed, convenience, and vision.

Speed as a Strategic Advantage

In crisis scenarios, weeks of delay translate to lives lost and opportunities missed. Ukraine's approach wasn't just fast — it was deliberately designed for speed. Digital services that would take years to develop in traditional bureaucracies were deployed in days or weeks. This wasn't merely about working faster but about reimagining the entire development process. Europe must recognize that in today's rapidly evolving threat landscape, speed itself becomes a form of resilience. Digital systems developed slowly become obsolete before deployment, creating perpetual cycles of outdated solutions.

Convenience as the Ultimate Measure

By making convenience the primary measure of success, Ukraine created digital services with extraordinary adoption rates. Europe must similarly recognize that digital transformation isn't measured by the number of services offered but by how seamlessly they integrate into citizens' lives, especially during crises.

Vision Beyond Digitization

Our vision is to build the most convenient digital state in the world. This isn't merely a technological goal, but a fundamental reimagining of the citizen-government relationship. While many countries digitize bureaucracy, Ukraine chose to reinvent governance from first principles:

• Government as a platform: Ukraine built Diia as an open ecosystem where government, businesses, and civil society can collaborate and innovate. This platform approach multiplies capabilities beyond what the government alone could deliver.
• Digital-by-default thinking: The state should operate as a service, without bureaucracy, queues, paperwork, or delays. All state services must be provided electronically. We’re still on our way, but this is our principle.
• Life event architecture: Services are organized around citizen experiences — birth, education, marriage, business creation, property ownership — not ministerial structures. This human-centred design eliminates the need for citizens to understand the government organization to access services.
• Public-private innovation models: One should not necessarily replicate Ukraine's exact solutions, but similarly elevate its ambitions beyond digitizing existing processes to reimagining what the most convenient digital state should look like, before a crisis makes such transformation necessary rather than visionary.

Lessons Learned

1. Governance structure matters: Ukraine's network of Chief Digital Transformation Officers across government created accountability and momentum. Europe could benefit from similar cross-cutting roles with clear mandates and authority to drive change.
2. Crisis as catalyst: Ukraine didn't wait for perfect conditions — it accelerated during the crisis. European nations need not face war to adopt this mindset; treating climate change, demographic shifts, or industrial competitiveness as similar imperatives can drive urgency.
3. User-centric design at scale: Diia's success comes from a relentless focus on user experience and solving real problems. European digital initiatives should similarly prioritize citizen needs over institutional convenience.
4. Modular, open architecture: By developing shareable components and embracing open standards, Ukraine built a system that evolves continuously. Europe's fragmented digital landscape could be unified through similar architectural principles.
5. Regulatory innovation: Ukraine's adaptive frameworks have enabled rapid experimentation. The results speak for themselves: Ukraine's drone sector grew from 7 to over 500 companies in just three years through public-private collaboration and regulatory openness. It is important to have an approach that helps to balance innovation with appropriate safeguards.

Europe has been an invaluable partner in Ukraine's digital journey. The EU has recognized Ukraine's digital transformation sector as “well advanced”. Ukraine has been actively harmonizing its national legislation with European frameworks to create favourable conditions for integration into the EU Single Market. These efforts are bringing Ukraine closer to obtaining internal market treatment with the EU for roaming services, electronic trust services, and telecommunications standards.

By sharing our hard-won experience in digital transformation under extreme conditions, Ukraine offers its contribution to a stronger, more resilient digital Europe. 

Together, we can reimagine what convenient, citizen-centred digital governance looks like — combining Europe's research excellence with Ukraine's implementation expertise to create digital systems that serve all Europeans, especially when they need them most.