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How Kyiv is using technology to embody urban resilience
Petro Olenych (CDTO), Oleg Polovynko (CIO), and Denys Nazarenko (CIO Advisor) from the Kyiv City Council explain how technology is being used to build resilience in the city, as well as to keep residents engaged and informed.
Since the invasion began, what has it meant in terms of changing priorities regarding Kyiv’s digital strategy?
Oleg Polovynko (OP, pictured, right): Since the start of the conflict in February 2022, the situation in Ukraine has become dire. Kyiv’s Mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, tasked the digital transformation team with turning the municipal app into a digital lifesaver tool to help people survive the conflict. The #kyivdigital app’s focus shifted from transportation and utility services to new services such as air raid alerts, maps of bomb shelters and heating centres, curfew reminders, and air quality alerts related to military operations. As the situation became more manageable, the team redefined their priority areas to prioritise public safety and access to reliable information through a one-stop-shop official channel.
How has the last 12 months impacted the decision-making process within your team to be able to make these rapid developments?
OP: We’ve faced numerous challenges that no other city in continental Europe has seen in the 21st century. The experience of transforming the smart city environment during the pandemic enabled us to quickly tailor the Kyiv Digital app to meet the needs of Kyivans.
From the first day of the war, the Kyiv Digital team and the people of Kyiv have been working together to bring Ukraine closer to victory. Despite the limited time available, we were able to show the world our resilience.
"While not telepathic, the team’s understanding of each other was such that lengthy explanations were not required for new tasks" – Denys Nazarenko
Denys Nazarenko (DN, pictured, right): The team demonstrated a tireless commitment to delivering results, with seamless collaboration driven by clear and effective communication. While not telepathic, the team’s understanding of each other was such that lengthy explanations were not required for new tasks. The result of this dynamic was a rapid pace of work, with the fastest task completion achieved in just 18 hours, a testament to the team’s ability to work together towards a common goal.
What partnerships and knowledge-sharing have helped you, and what can other cities learn from what you’ve done and the agility with which you’ve done it?
Petro Olenych (PO - pictured, right): Our key partners, including Cloudflare, Microsoft, Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell, Fortinet, and USAID, have provided their services and products to the Kyiv City Council as technical assistance, helping us recover from and defend against constant cyber-attacks.
To answer the second part of your question, I believe that the challenges and experiences we’ve faced have given us a deeper understanding of where humanity should be heading as a planet and species. In normal times, Kyiv is home to over three million people and an additional 1.5 million commute to the city for work, making a total of around 4.5 million people. However, during the first week of the war, more than two million people fled the city via trains and cars. We faced many challenges such as how to keep people informed and manage the crowds. To address this, we enabled reliable Wi-Fi access in over 1,000 bomb shelters throughout the city, allowing people to stay connected with the outside world. The challenges we faced included blackouts and the fact that only a few internet service providers had diesel generators, which we also had to address.
Additionally, we needed to identify reliable sources of information as people in Ukraine typically get their news from Telegram channels, social media, or television. However, the ownership of certain news channels is not always clear, and many are pro-Kremlin, making the information and narratives they provide not 100 per cent accurate. There are also numerous psyops that can cause panic among the public. To tackle this, we needed to clarify the real situation, such as explaining that the transportation system was still running.
Once we had identified reliable information sources, we immediately began providing citizens with a way to share their feedback and access information and service support. We understand that people will have questions about our services, so we cannot rely on a one-way communication channel.
OP: These three pillars – internet connection, reliable sources of information, and feedback – are essential for every city governance team in any situation. For example, an air raid alert may indicate when to take shelter, but how does one know when it’s safe to leave without internet access inside the shelter? It’s crucial to inform the public, and to do so, we need both offline and online services. This is the message we aim to share with cities worldwide, to prepare them for a future that may not always be bright.
Kyiv's digital strategy aims to be a proposition that can be scaled to the rest of Ukraine
Can you tell us about some of the other uses your digital tools have?
OP: During the conflict, many businesses shut down or left the city, causing confusion for residents about where to buy goods and access services. The team invited operating businesses to fill out a form, which was then shared with the public through the Kyiv Digital app. This allowed over 4,000 businesses to connect to the platform, and even if a business was only open for a limited time each day, it could still be located.
DN: The importance of this cannot be overstated. The potential for both time loss and physical harm was significant, given the threat posed by low altitude supersonic missiles or drone attacks. Proactively avoiding these hazardous locations was essential in ensuring the safety and well-being of all impacted citizens.
"Kyiv Digital has established itself as a platform for e-democracy, providing an accessible and inclusive channel for city residents to participate in city decision-making despite the limitations imposed by the war" – Petro Olenych
PO: Kyiv Digital has established itself as a platform for e-democracy, providing an accessible and inclusive channel for city residents to participate in city decision-making despite the limitations imposed by the war. Despite the temporary suspension of our open data strategy, we are committed to ensuring that residents remain informed and engaged with the city’s initiatives. This was demonstrated by our successful implementation of a petition and voting system within the platform, which has facilitated the renaming of over 400 city streets and parks, previously named after Soviet Union. This channel serves as a powerful tool for effecting change in the city, with petitions being directly directed to the relevant departments.
What are the priorities for the digital team for the next six months, and how do you decide what is a priority when you are in the middle of a war?
PO: The prioritisation of our objectives is clear-cut, with the foremost emphasis placed on ensuring enhanced security and public safety. Additionally, we are focusing on initiatives that bolster our resilience, specifically in regard to disaster recovery. Our organisation is implementing measures to fortify our IT and service infrastructure, transforming into a specialised defence hub. Despite this shift, our commitment to utilising smart city technologies remains, as they play a pivotal role in maintaining our strength and resilience.
OP: We are proceeding with several social and commercial projects, and plan to revisit others in the future. Our objective to deliver essential services remains unchanged, although we currently face limitations, particularly in the field of education. With 300,000 schoolchildren in Kyiv and only 50,000 spots available in bomb shelters, we are compelled by law to keep schools closed. As a result, over half of the school-age children in Kyiv are receiving their education online, which creates additional workload and challenges, such as infrastructure stress tests during blackouts. Nonetheless, we are determined to overcome these obstacles and maintain operational capacity across all sectors.
PO: Our vision for the 2035 Kyiv Digital Strategy foresees the city’s metamorphosis into a beacon of carbon-neutrality, equipped with state-of-the-art protection and public safety capabilities and digitally empowered neighbourhoods that drive economic growth and equitable development. This vision is built upon a robust open-data collaborative framework and public-private partnerships, making Kyiv Digital City a cornerstone of the critical national infrastructure and a trusted scale proposition for the entire country. Consider this is a Ukrainian strategy that we’ve started in Kyiv.
"The city’s approach to cyber protection goes beyond just cybersecurity and aligns with the G20 agenda, prioritising cyber resilience" – Oleg Polovynko
OP: Kyiv was once known as the "city of chestnuts" due to its abundance of blooming chestnut trees in the spring. Now, it has earned the reputation of being the capital of resilience. The city’s approach to cyber protection goes beyond just cybersecurity and aligns with the G20 agenda, prioritising cyber resilience.
We have a wealth of unique insights to share regarding protection, public safety, and resilience, drawing on elements from defence. Later this year, we plan to launch the development of our specialised protection and public safety data model, drawing on our extensive experience and expertise. Our priority is addressing issues that are of utmost importance to residents. While defence and safety are certainly a priority, we also aim to make improvements in transportation. For instance, during an air raid, public transportation halts. Hence, we are actively exploring innovative solutions to tackle this challenge.
Oleg, you have been to Davos recently. What sort of feedback did you get there from the global community?
OP: I am grateful to the global community for their unwavering support. Kyiv and Ukraine are at the forefront of digitalisation, and we have implemented innovative solutions that have garnered recognition worldwide. For instance, at Davos, national app, DIIA, was presented as a model for the Estonian government. The Ukrainian government has also launched Digitality, which brings all our digital projects, including DIIA, into a unified portfolio. We are ready to share our expertise and serve as a start-up for the rest of Europe.
Our journey towards digitalisation was born out of necessity during a time of war, and we do not wish for others to experience the same. That’s why we are saying, "Use our experience. We want to share".
Toolbox
Actionable insights
- Citizen engagement and participation remain front of mind: even in the middle of a warzone, the Kyiv Digital team has adapted engagement and participation tools through e-governance to keep citizens aware and active in city decision making – a lesson to others of the measures that can be implemented regardless of situation to stay close to community priorities
- Kyiv is open: the Kyiv Digital team has worked incessantly with public and private partners during the last year to scale digital public services quickly, and is open to sharing its learnings with others, demonstrating a potential path forward for others to engage with the private sector more readily and transparently
- Remembering the bigger picture: while certain projects and programmes have had to be suspended during wartime, such as Kyiv’s open data strategy, the work the city has done in the last year is still being contextualised within the 2035 Kyiv Digital Strategy, illustrating the need for clear policy direction and development in cities
- A broader view: how Ukraine has used data during the war and its focuses in peacetime
- National policy: Ukraine’s digital transformation goals
- Beyond digital: projects that aim to rebuild Kyiv
The SmartCitiesWorld Toolbox is a new feature designed to draw out the key insights from our special reports and combine them with helpful resources for city practitioners to dig deeper and assess their own next steps. Something missing? Let our editor know at lukea@smartcitiesworld.net.
Why not try these links to see what our SmartCitiesWorld AI can tell you.
(Please note this is an experimental service)
How does Kyiv Digital app enhance citizen safety during air raid alerts?What role do public-private partnerships play in Kyiv’s digital resilience?How is Kyiv ensuring reliable internet access in bomb shelters?In what ways does Kyiv Digital support e-democracy amid conflict?How is Kyiv’s cyber resilience strategy aligned with the G20 agenda?Citizen SecurityConnectivity & DatacybersecurityDevicesGovernance and CitizenNetworkresilienceSecurity
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