OpenAI extends cyber access to Ukraine for civilian defense
OpenAI is extending its Daybreak program to the Government of Ukraine to support the cyber defense of civilian infrastructure. Working with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the initiative provides tools to identify software vulnerabilities and test fixes. The announcement follows similar deployments of OpenAI cyber models to European defenders and agencies.
The Core Development
OpenAI today announced it will offer the Government of Ukraine access to its Daybreak program to support the cyber defense of civilian infrastructure. Working with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, OpenAI will provide Ukrainian teams with access to tools to identify software vulnerabilities and develop and test fixes more quickly.
The announcement was made on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly by Dmytro Kushneruk, the Consul General of Ukraine in San Francisco, and Sasha Baker, Head of National Security Policy at OpenAI.
Ukrainian defenders face persistent cyber attacks from Russia, alongside physical attacks on the country’s infrastructure. Ukraine’s national cyber incident response team, CERT-UA, handled (opens in a new window) nearly 6,000 cyber incidents in 2025. These include attacks on hospital systems, the energy sector and telecommunications, underscoring the pressure on the organizations providing essential services to Ukrainians.
Deployment & Availability
We are proud to support Ukraine’s cyber defenders, who are protecting essential services against attacks every day. Through Daybreak, public and private entities have an opportunity to strengthen their cyber defenses before emerging threats take hold. Ukraine is already on the front line, and its defenders need support now. We want to put more capable tools in their hands to help them find and fix vulnerabilities and protect the critical networks people depend on.
Strategic Perspective & Ecosystem Impact
OpenAI’s Daybreak gives cyber defenders access to advanced AI for authorized security work, from reviewing older software and investigating suspicious activity to validating vulnerabilities and testing fixes.
Ukraine has shown under the most extreme pressure that cyber defense is a central part of national security. Protecting civilian infrastructure means defending it against both physical and digital attacks, so people can continue to live, work and access essential services. We’re now putting our technology and resources behind that effort, helping the Ukrainian government strengthen its cyber defenses with AI.
OpenAI has already provided access to its cyber models to defenders in Europe including France, Germany, Poland, and others. The EU’s cyber agency, ENISA, has used the models to identify vulnerabilities in software used across EU institutions, all of which have since been fixed.
Why it matters
This highlights the growing operational role of advanced AI models in national security and state-level cyber defense for critical civilian infrastructure. It demonstrates how AI vendors are scaling access to specialized security tools for government agencies facing active threats.