Last year, it was revealed that Kyiv ranked among the top 15 best cities in the world for the level of digitalization and development of e-services in the UN ranking.
Kyiv Digital city app is already installed on almost every Kyiv resident’s smartphone. Meanwhile, Kyiv’s experience has become the basis for implementing digital services abroad.
For example, the war contingency plan of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius was prepared precisely on the foundation of the Ukrainian capital’s experience. The document included the same alert system algorithms and development processes as those in the Kyiv Digital app.
Kyiv Post investigated which major digitization projects are currently underway in Kyiv, how they are faring (since these projects are not cheap), and who is helping the city government.
Digitization projects have been implemented in the last three years
Kyiv Digital app
In 2025, the Kyiv Digital city app turned four years old. Undoubtedly, this is one of the capital’s main digital projects – one might even say the “showcase” of the city’s digitalization.
Payment for public transport and parking, surveys and petitions, useful maps, air quality monitoring, important city news – all this and more is available in one app. After the full-scale invasion, Kyiv Digital was adapted to new needs: it added air-raid alerts, volunteer projects, and military support.
Today, Kyiv Digital has over 3.5 million users, 487,000 petition signatures, 3 million responses to various surveys, and much more.
City Service Platform
Implementation of such large-scale digital projects would hardly have been possible without donor support. Kyiv’s city government established mutually beneficial cooperation with donors, as we previously reported.
With support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Kyiv unified all major city services and updated its single city service platform.
The approach to digitalizing city services has changed; development of user-centered services now starts with the clarifying of user’s needs.
Services already available on the Platform include:
- E-cabinet for defenders
- Partial compensation for energy cost
- Permits for small business owners
- Financial assistance for people in difficult life circumstances
- Financial assistance to vulnerable groups, including families of fallen Ukrainian soldiers
- Educational services
The Platform features single sign-on, convenient search, and fully digitized processes for submitting and processing applications. Social assistance, official statements, permits, and licenses that used to take a long time can now be obtained in minutes. All services are standardized and described according to a unified approach. City department and municipal enterprise staff, in turn, have a convenient tool for handling citizen requests and applications.
Digitalization of Education
Kyiv leads in technology implementation, particularly in education. The Kyiv Digital app now offers an electronic student ID for schoolchildren.
Online enrollment in schools allows parents to submit applications for their children’s admission via the internet, eliminating the need to stand in queues. This innovation has made the enrollment process significantly more convenient and accessible for everyone.
Schools and kindergartens operate an extensive security system: over 3,500 video cameras and internet connectivity, including Wi-Fi access points that ensure uninterrupted educational processes. Additionally, over 2,000 access points have been installed in schools to provide internet to more than 6,000 students.
Mental Health Guard and Psychological Assistance Services
As part of the cooperation with Bloomberg Philanthropies, the rapid mental support group project Mental Health Guard was implemented in educational institutions.
The project includes online mental health testing for all participants in the educational process and integration into existing IT systems (supported by Cisco), aimed at improving participants’ mental well-being.
It also includes an educational course, training sessions, and advanced professional development courses for teachers and psychologists to provide them with the knowledge and tools needed to respond quickly to crisis situations.
Since the project’s inception, over 1,000 people have received assistance.
The Situation Center
The Situation Center helps Kyiv’s services respond quickly to emergencies. It coordinates their actions and maintains order in the city.
The Center can now process over 15 different situations, such as drone or missile strikes. After any incident, the system automatically identifies the location, displays a map of shelters, evacuation routes, the nearest hospitals, and warming centers. All city services immediately receive notifications and act according to their contingency plans.
In addition to coordinating responses to crises, the Center can predict potential threats and develop preventive measures. Regarding cybersecurity, the stable operation of city services is ensured through cooperation with global companies and organizations such as USAID, Fortinet, Cloudflare, and others.
City Resilience accelerator program
With support from USAID, Kyiv hosted the large-scale City Resilience accelerator program for the first time, aimed at finding innovative technological solutions to enhance the resilience of residential buildings.
Participants presented solutions for energy management analytics systems, data analysis products, IoT data collection systems, and machine learning algorithms to optimize energy consumption. Winners received grants, opportunities to present their projects at a high level, and a jury that included representatives of technology companies such as Cisco and Kyivstar.
Who is digitalizing Kyiv?
Everyone remembers the digitalization video from Klitschko. It’s hard to believe, but the fact remains: it works.
The Mayor of Kyiv defines the city’s strategy and development vector. Digital direction is coordinated by newly appointed deputy Valentyn Mondyyivskyi, and the Department of Information and Communication Technologies of the Kyiv City State Administration, headed by Viktoriia Itskovych, is responsible for developing and implementing services.
Three municipal enterprises report to the Department: the Main Information and Computing Center, Informatics Communal enterprise, and Kyivteleservice specialized utility company.
As was noted above, launching such large-scale projects during the war would be extremely difficult without international assistance and support.
Who helped Kyiv implement these innovations?
In addition to its internal team, Kyiv actively engages international expertise and cooperates with leading global corporations. The Ukrainian capital became the 58th city under the Bloomberg Philanthropies umbrella, which operates in nine countries across four continents. Moreover:
“Bloomberg Philanthropies is pleased to support Kyiv in digitizing its key areas of life and the mental health of Ukrainians. We look forward to even more cities being inspired by Kyiv’s ingenuity and determination,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg L.P., and the 108th Mayor of New York City.
The main factors behind Kyiv’s success in digitalization:
- Thorough planning and proper project management
- Successful work with donors to attract external funding
- High-quality communications
War is not only about crises but also about new development opportunities. Kyiv’s example demonstrates that a professional team, supported by reliable international partners, can not only adapt to new challenging circumstances but also take a step forward.