Digital resilience in wartime: The case of Ukraine

• Published date: 01 November 2023
• Author: Gulsanna Mamediieva,Donald Moynihan
• Date: 01 November 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13742

VIEWPOINT

Digital resilience in wartime: The case of Ukraine

Gulsanna Mamediieva | Donald Moynihan

McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown

University, Washington, DC, USA

Correspondence

Donald Moynihan, McCourt School of Public

Policy, Georgetown University, Washington,

DC, USA.

Email: dm1548@georgetown.edu

Abstract

A key topic in digital government is how to improve public services. The global

pandemic focused attention on the use of digital in the context of crisis. Here, we

consider how a digital innovation in response to a different type of crisis, examin-

ing Ukraine’s response to Russia’s invasion of 2022. We describe how the govern-

ment engaged in what we characterize as digital resilience, that is, the use of

digital government capacities to maintain basic societal functions in crisis situa-

tions. Prior to the war, Ukraine upgraded its digital government capacities. The

war provided the impetus to speed up the use of those capacities, which were

used not just for defensive military purposes, but also to provide continuity to the

civilian aspects of government, including the provision of digital documentation

and aid to displaced people. In doing so, digital capacities provided a key basis for

Ukraine’s resistance.

Evidence for practice

•Digital government capacities can reduce administrative burdens by taking a

human-centered approach to public services, but also provide resilience in times

of crisis.

•Core to the success of Ukrainian digital resilience were investments in digital

capacity prior to the war, and strong presidential support, reflected in the crea-

tion of a Ministry of Digital Transformation.

•The war created a sense of urgency and innovation that facilitated rapid

response and further innovation.

•Digital capacities play a dual function role during wartime, enabling the

co-production of defensive efforts, and continuity in civilian services.

•An early start with digital documentation, and the use of portals that verified cit-

izen identity, made it feasible for the government to support 14 million people

displaced by the war and 17 million experiencing urgent humanitarian needs

inside Ukraine.

INTRODUCTION

The era of smart technology has opened new possibilities

for government in the provision of services, which after

decades of promise are slowly becoming more tangible

as platforms connect accessible technology and adminis-

trative data (Kim et al., 2022).

Much of prior research has considered the role of digi-

tal government in service delivery, public participation,

autonomous agents (like chatbots) or the use of predic-

tive analytics (van den Berg et al., 2020; Vogl et al., 2020;

Xu & Tang, 2020). The most commonly studied variables

in e-government research partially reflect these opportu-

nities: productivity, client satisfaction and service quality,

trust, and communication outcomes for clients

(MacLean & Titah, 2022). Such research occurs in the con-

text of what we might think of as normal services: govern-

ment provides the same basic functions, but uses

technology to provide greater public value, citizenship

participation, and lower administrative burden.

The global pandemic, which necessitated strong gov-

ernment action in a context of physical distancing, has

illustrated the possibility of digital resources during crisis

on a massive scale (Bernd et al., 2021). In this article, we

look at the role of digital government in a different type

of crisis: the invasion of a country by a hostile power,

which included attacks on civilian infrastructure, and trig-

gered mass displacement of citizens. Russia invaded

Received: 26 April 2023 Accepted: 26 September 2023

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13742

1512 © 2023 American Society for Public Administration. Public Admin Rev. 2023;83:1512–1516.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar