Kai Zenner is Digital Policy Adviser for MEP Axel Voss. All expressed views are personal and represent neither the position of the European Parliament nor of the EPP Group. Liudmyla Rabchynska is former Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
Oles Andriychuk is a professor at the University of Exeter and specialises in internet law.
When Russian rockets forced millions of Ukrainians to flee their homes, many carried with them little more than a smartphone. But through that device, they carried their state.
The Diia app, Ukraine’s digital backbone, gave citizens access to their identity documents, public services, business registries, and emergency payments. They could file paperwork, register companies, and even vote, all without stepping into a government office. Today, Ukraine ranks first in the UN’s E-Participation Index and fifth in the Online Service Index, ahead of many EU member countries. The state didn’t break under pressure. It went digital – completely and decisively.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military command began procuring drones through Prozorro Market, a public procurement platform open to small businesses. Its armed forces deployed Delta, a real-time battlefield dashboard powered by satellite imagery, drone video and front-line reports. One AI module, integrated into this system, could identify enemy targets in just over two seconds.
These are not romantic anecdotes of wartime ingenuity. They are the architecture of a digital government under fire and a working model of 21st-century statecraft. Diia, Prozorro Market and Delta became operational pillars of national survival, built and scaled under extreme conditions.
Digital transformation had already been a strategic priority in Kyiv for years. But its acceleration after the 2022 Russian invasion was immediate – a reflex, not a roadmap. It worked not because everything was perfectly planned, but because it had to: fast, secure and at scale, across Europe’s largest country.
This stands in sharp contrast to the EU, where digital sovereignty remains more aspiration than reality. The blistering competitiveness report by Mario Draghi, released one year ago, has yet to shift institutional mindsets in a meaningful way. Over 100 digital laws have been adopted in the past decade yet many EU countries still struggle to deliver basic digital public services reliably, securely and at scale. Cross-border interoperability remains incomplete. Procurement still favours incumbents. And core digital infrastructure such as cloud services remains deeply reliant on providers far beyond European jurisdiction.
Ukraine’s decision-makers did not wait for global standards. They acted because they had no choice. In doing so, they revealed a truth that Europe too often sidesteps: Digital sovereignty is not achieved through legislative output alone. It is embedded in working infrastructure, adaptable in crisis and deployable at speed. Services must function. Systems must connect. Citizens must believe that their government, even under fire, can deliver.
A mobile phone with the ‘Diia’ (Action) mobile app on September 10, 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo by Viktor Fridshon/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
The EU is surrounded by war – as noted in last week’s State of the Union address. From coercive dependencies to the erosion of democratic resilience through AI-driven manipulation, the risks are profound. In a world of contested supply chains, cyber threats and algorithmic disruption, institutional agility is not a luxury.
What’s more, the EU has the tools and the talent. It has a vast internal market and a regulatory tradition that upholds rights while shaping global standards. And to its credit, the von der Leyen Commission sought to accelerate digital transformation, from the Digital Decade targets to the Competitiveness Compass, offering a clearer direction than before. Yet for all these advances, Europe continues to lack political urgency. For years, digital policy has been reactive and fragmented, structured more to minimise risk than to maximise momentum.
That disconnect carries real costs, not only in public trust or geopolitical influence, but in economic competitiveness. As Draghi’s report makes clear, investor confidence hinges on the ability to deliver digital services at scale. If European innovators and public institutions remain trapped in procedural silos, capital and talent will keep flowing elsewhere.
Ukraine’s experience doesn’t offer a blueprint in the traditional sense. But it presents a living case study of what becomes possible when digital governance moves from principle to execution. Its transformation did not emerge from ideal conditions. It was forged through necessity, fuelled by political clarity, and implemented with remarkable technical discipline. Crucially, it was not built from zero. The digital foundations – as in the European Union – were already in place. What changed was the pace and the mindset.
Digital sovereignty cannot be secured through declarations or regulations alone – it must be built under real conditions, with public trust at its core. If Ukraine can digitise its government in the fog of war, then the EU can surely do so in the calm of peace.