Ukraine will soon deploy a new generation of domestically produced AI-powered anti-aircraft missile interceptor systems, which could allow the country to fight indefinitely. This is reported by WP, citing conversations with the new head of the Ministry of Defense Mykhailo Fedorov and other high-ranking officials, reports UNN.
"We have a clear plan on how to stop Russia in our skies," Fedorov said at a meeting on Sunday at the Ministry of Defense headquarters. A few minutes later, he signed an agreement with the American defense software development company Palantir to create an advanced AI-powered "data room." It will use millions of bits of sensor data and images that Ukraine has collected over four years of war to train AI systems that can predict Russian attacks and then direct cheap autonomous interceptors to defeat them.
"It's not about our victory, but about us becoming invincible," said Andriy Hrytsenyuk, executive director of Brave1, a technology incubator that has coordinated Ukraine's amazing innovations on the battlefield with drones and artificial intelligence. "The war stops when the enemy realizes that his political goals cannot be achieved," he argued.
The publication notes that if the new Dataroom initiative works as planned, in six months Ukraine will have the basis for a nationwide system of autonomous air defense missiles that will finally be able to protect Ukrainian cities from Russian attack.
The Dataroom project illustrates a key variable in this war. In its desperate attempt to repel Russia, Ukraine has developed perhaps the world's most innovative defense technology sector. Fedorov embodies this impulse. He is only 34 years old, dressed in a simple sweater. But back in 2022, he convinced President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to seek help from Palantir and Starlink and launched a project known as the "Army of Drones" - the material says.
Let's add
WP notes that another champion of aggressive technology use was 40-year-old Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, the former head of military intelligence, whom Zelenskyy has just appointed as the head of his presidential administration. This technical savvy is one of the main reasons why Ukraine has survived the onslaught of a much larger and more powerful Russia.
Brave1 coordinated this technological push. When the war began, Ukraine had only seven companies producing small drones; a year later there were 70, and today there are 500 — producing millions of aerial drones annually, according to Hrytsenyuk. Another 280 companies are developing autonomous ground vehicles — essentially unmanned tanks. In 2022, almost all of Ukraine's attacks were carried out by artillery; today almost 90 percent are carried out by drones.
While Ukraine has brought the fight with Russia to a stalemate on the ground, its greatest weakness has been air defense. Relentless Russian attacks have destroyed power plants, thermal power plants, and other critical infrastructure. Ukraine is fighting a brave nightly battle against up to 1,000 missiles and drones, but these attacks have made civilian life horrific. The Dataroom interceptor project is an attempt to create an air defense shield to end this nightly onslaught, the publication adds.
"No country in the world has experience defending against air attacks of the scale that Ukraine faces today," Fedorov explained in an email on Monday. "By learning to counter these attacks, Ukraine is building... the next generation of AI-powered air defense."
The publication emphasizes that Ukrainian defense must be cheaper than Russian attacking drones and missiles. And it must act instantly, across the country, to respond to attacks faster than humans could. This is the system Dataroom is building, using Ukraine's data library to train its AI system to recognize an incoming attack and accurately target it. The AI software will be integrated with homemade interceptors created by Ukraine's ever-growing defense technology sector.
Recall
Trump continues to pressure Russia and Ukraine for a peace deal, and American negotiators believe a deal is achievable this year. They have agreed with Zelenskyy's team on a "prosperity plan" to rebuild Ukraine's economy, and they believe they have 95 percent of the details of a security agreement. The big remaining hurdle is Russia's demand for territory in Donetsk, which Ukraine still controls, at the cost of thousands of Ukrainian lives.
Putin does not want to make concessions because he still thinks he can win. But Ukraine's new AI-based air defense network will make that less likely. If Ukraine can protect civilians on the frozen streets of Kyiv — and assure them that they will not face another winter in the cold, even if the war continues — perhaps Putin will reconsider his bet.