OpenAI is providing Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation with access to Daybreak, an AI system designed to identify and help remediate software vulnerabilities.
Ukraine’s CERT-UA handled nearly 6,000 cyberattacks in 2025, a 37% increase from 2024, with local governments and public agencies facing the heaviest burden.
The announcement followed OpenAI’s September 3 pledge to provide $1 billion in subsidized Daybreak access to defenders with limited resources and expand the program to “partner countries” within weeks.
OpenAI is extending access to Daybreak for Ukraine’s government. The AI tool is designed to detect and help repair software vulnerabilities before malicious actors—particularly Russian cyber operators—can exploit them.
The initiative was offered to Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and announced Wednesday alongside the UN General Assembly. Dmytro Kushneruk, Ukraine’s Consul General in San Francisco, and Sasha Baker, OpenAI’s Head of National Security Policy, announced the agreement together.
Daybreak operates on GPT-5.6 Sol, OpenAI’s flagship large language model and the underlying technology powering ChatGPT. Trained on extensive volumes of text and code, it assesses legacy systems for weaknesses, tests whether a suspected flaw is exploitable and verifies that a proposed patch closes the vulnerability before deployment.
“We are proud to support Ukraine’s cyber defenders, who are protecting essential services against attacks every day,” said Sasha Baker, OpenAI’s Head of National Security Policy. “Ukraine is already on the front line, and its defenders need support now.”
Ukraine is not the first government facing wartime cyber threats to receive support from OpenAI. Cyber agencies in France, Germany and Poland already have access to the company’s models. CERT Polska used the technology to identify six vulnerabilities in commercial router software, all of which have since been patched by the vendor.
The move comes three weeks after OpenAI pledged $1 billion in subsidized Daybreak access for under-resourced defenders worldwide and said it would expand the program to “partner countries” within weeks.
OpenAI’s approach to military-related activity has changed. Until January 2024, its usage policy explicitly prohibited military and warfare activity. That restriction was removed on January 10, days before CEO Sam Altman and OpenAI’s vice president of global affairs told reporters in Davos that the company was developing cybersecurity tools with the Pentagon.
Some analysts also question whether Western technology companies’ support for Ukraine is entirely altruistic. Jamie MacColl, a cyber researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, told the BBC that firms operating in an active conflict zone can gain valuable intelligence. “It’s no surprise that OpenAI is now also providing defensive cyber security services,” MacColl said.
For Kyiv, the strategic value lies in the results. Every vulnerability identified and corrected before Russian actors can exploit it extends the country’s defensive capacity. OpenAI’s pledge called for expanding the program to partner countries within weeks, and Ukraine’s access, announced three weeks later, appears to be the clearest sign of that commitment taking effect.
