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OpenAI extends Daybreak cyber defense access to Ukraine

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OpenAI extends Daybreak cyber defense access to Ukraine

OpenAI announced it will offer the Government of Ukraine access to its Daybreak program to support the cyber defense of civilian infrastructure. Working with Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation, OpenAI will give Ukrainian teams tools to identify software vulnerabilities and develop and test fixes more quickly. The announcement was made on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly by Dmytro Kushneruk, the Consul General of Ukraine in San Francisco, and Sasha Baker, OpenAI's Head of National Security Policy.

OpenAI frames the move against the backdrop of sustained Russian cyber and physical attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure. Ukraine's national cyber incident response team, CERT-UA, handled nearly 6,000 cyber incidents in 2025, including attacks on hospital systems, the energy sector and telecommunications. Daybreak gives authorized cyber defenders access to AI for security work such as reviewing older software, investigating suspicious activity, validating vulnerabilities and testing fixes.

OpenAI says it has already given access to its cyber models to defenders elsewhere in Europe, including France, Germany and Poland. It points to two results from that earlier rollout: the EU's cyber agency, ENISA, used the models to identify vulnerabilities in software used across EU institutions, and all of those have since been fixed; and in Poland, the national cyber agency CERT Polska used OpenAI models to help discover six vulnerabilities in third-party router software, which the vendor has since patched, fixes that CERT Polska confirms prevent the attacks it observed. Ukraine's addition extends this same program to a country under active wartime cyber pressure.

Key facts

  • OpenAI will give Ukraine's Government access to its Daybreak cyber defense tool, working with the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
  • The announcement was made on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly by Dmytro Kushneruk, Ukraine's Consul General in San Francisco, and Sasha Baker, OpenAI's Head of National Security Policy.
  • CERT-UA, Ukraine's national cyber incident response team, handled nearly 6,000 cyber incidents in 2025, including attacks on hospitals, energy and telecom systems.
  • OpenAI already provides cyber model access to defenders in France, Germany and Poland; the EU's ENISA used the models to identify and fix vulnerabilities across EU institutions.
  • In Poland, CERT Polska used OpenAI models to discover six vulnerabilities in third-party router software, which the vendor has since fixed.

Why it matters

Ukraine is fighting a war in which Russia combines physical attacks on infrastructure with sustained cyber attacks on the same targets, hospitals, energy, telecommunications. Extending Daybreak access to Kyiv puts OpenAI's cyber defense tooling directly into a live wartime environment, following an earlier rollout to European partners like France, Germany and Poland.

Who it affects

Ukrainian government cyber teams working through the Ministry of Digital Transformation, and by extension CERT-UA, the national incident response team that handled nearly 6,000 cyber incidents in 2025. It also affects the civilian institutions those teams defend, including hospitals, energy providers and telecom operators.

How to use it

Daybreak gives authorized cyber defenders AI access for security work: reviewing older software, investigating suspicious activity, validating vulnerabilities, and testing fixes. OpenAI's announcement does not mention pricing, licensing terms, or a specific date on which Ukrainian access begins.

How solid is it

The account comes from OpenAI's own announcement, made jointly with a Ukrainian official at a public diplomatic event, the UN General Assembly. OpenAI backs its claims with two concrete prior results from the European rollout: EU vulnerabilities found and fixed via ENISA, and six router-software vulnerabilities found by CERT Polska and since patched by the vendor. There is no independent verification of these results in the source.

Risks and caveats

The announcement gives no timeline for when Ukraine's access to Daybreak starts or how long it runs, no funding or contract figures, and does not name specific Ukrainian teams beyond the Ministry of Digital Transformation. As with any vendor announcement, the framing and the choice of examples come from OpenAI itself.