Стас Юрасов That's Life 10 December 2025, 15:09

What if there were elections tomorrow? We have selected the 10 most influential people in Ukrainian IT for whom you could vote

Elections 2026. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said yesterday that he is ready. He has requested a security guarantee from the US and Europeans and is waiting for proposals from deputies on how to implement this plan within 60-90 days. If this is the case, then we can have elections in the spring. How they will be held, no one yet understands. But on the sidelines, journalists in the editorial office will receive signs that preparations are in full swing. And future political forces are trying to drag as many influential people as possible into «their camp.»

And the IT community, which already numbers 200,000 people in Ukraine, is one of the most active segments of the population. This community is solvent, well-educated, thoughtful, and patriotic. So are there future political leaders in IT? Who enjoys the greatest trust in the industry and beyond? We decided to analyze the biographies and statements of influential IT figures to understand this.

And here are 10 figures from Ukrainian IT who have political potential — due to publicity, resources, expertise, public activism, or influence on the market.

Disclaimer

This potential does not mean at all that these people will necessarily be involved in the electoral process. Our list indicates more those who are theoretically capable of influencing the electorate (or certain social groups) through their figure and their actions.

Mykhailo Fedorov, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation

Mykhailo is already in power. But it seems that fate has presented him with a difficult internal choice:

or head Zelensky’s office and, in the event of elections, go on the election campaign with him, in one political force, as was the case in 2019;
or before the elections, remain a more independent figure in the vice-prime minister’s chair. This gives him more variations for maneuvers: 1) create a separate political force; 2) take an apolitical position as a technocrat-executive (under any president/government).

Considering that Volodymyr Zelensky is involved, one way or another, in a complex corruption scandal with Mindich’s tapes, which is obviously not over, for Mykhailo Fedorov, who is perhaps the only one among the president’s close circle who leaves an unblemished reputation, getting closer to Zelensky to the level of head of his office may carry risks, and not only reputational ones.

Mikhailov Fedorov, before his political career, was the founder and CEO of the digital agency SMMSTUDIO in Zaporizhia. He opened this business in 2014. After 5 years, this studio successfully implemented a digital strategy for the Servant of the People party in the parliamentary elections, which greatly helped Zelenskyy to concentrate power.

Dmytro Shymkiv, miltech entrepreneur («AeroDron»), member of the supervisory boards of Kyivstar, Helsi, and the Ukrainian Startup Fund.

Shymkiv is a manager with extensive experience in IT and business management. From 2009 to 2014, he worked as the General Director of Microsoft Ukraine.

Dmytro also has good experience in government structures. He was deputy head of the Presidential Administration from 2014 to 2018, during the presidency of Petro Poroshenko, Zelensky’s main opponent.

Dmytro is patriotic, has the respect of his environment in technological circles, has a modern education, and understands how government structures work.

Stepan Veselovsky, Head of the Lviv IT Cluster

He heads the most influential IT association in Ukraine. Objectively, the Lviv cluster is the strongest and most influential among all regional analogues. Even the Kyiv IT cluster does not have such influence.

In addition, Veselovsky is the founder of IT Arena. This is the largest annual IT conference in Ukraine. IT Arena was lucky with the venue. During the war years, Lviv became a much safer city than Kyiv, which regularly suffers from ballistics and swarms of drones. That is why, for example, the capital stopped holding iForum, which was considered the largest industry event in the country even before the heyday of IT Arena.

Stepan Veselovsky enters the Polish market with IT Arena in 2026, strengthening his influence on Ukrainian IT professionals living outside the country.

So Stepan is a strong authoritative figure who could have an influence on the IT electorate and not only. But so far his influence is limited regionally. Every taxi driver in Lviv, every hotelier or restaurateur knows well what IT Arena is. But in other regions, the masses have hardly heard about it.

Artem Borodatyuk is the founder and head of the large IT holding company Netpeak Group (now called Fractal)

Big business gives him resources, influence, and public visibility. He actively participates in the work of state and business institutions: he is currently a member of the Council for Entrepreneurship Support under the President of Ukraine, which means that he already has access to the bureaucratic/administrative level.
In public speeches and interviews, Borodatyuk often expresses his position on economic and business issues (taxes, IT reforms, liberalization), which looks like political rhetoric.

However, we were unable to find any public statements from him where he would say: «I’m going into politics,» «I’m going to be an MP/for a position.» That is, as of today, there is no clear declaration of intention to run or join a party.

Taras Kytsmey, co-founder and member of the board of directors of SoftServe.

An influential businessman and public figure: he headed the IT Ukraine Association three times and is a member of the board of the European Business Association (EBA).

He is actively involved in social and economic initiatives: educational programs, support for the IT industry, agribusiness, and invests in the real economy. Kytsmey is a frequent guest and top speaker at well-known conferences in both Kyiv and Lviv.

Softserve is the second largest IT company in Ukraine by number of employees (7,200 people — DOU data). It is surpassed only by EPAM.

Kitsmey did not publicly announce his desire to run for deputy or public office — there are no such statements in open sources.

David Arakhamia — head of the Servant of the People faction in parliament

He has significant political power and influence over key decisions. At the beginning of the Russian military invasion in 2022, he was the head of the Ukrainian negotiating team.

In the IT world he was known as David Brown. In 2002, in Nikolaev, Arakhamia became a co-founder of the IT company TemplateMonster, which specialized in the development and sale of web templates for websites and e-commerce. David started with a regular office in an apartment. Over time, TemplateMonster became one of the world leaders at that time. Approximately in 2014-2017, the company was sold, according to the owner, for more than $100 million.

Arakhamia has a good relationship with Mykhailo Fedorov. Even before the large-scale war, he called the head of the Ministry of Digital Economy «a visionary in spirit.» Who knows, perhaps Arakhamia (from Mykolaiv) and Fedorov (from Zaporizhia) could have known each other even before Zelensky’s election. After all, they were geographically close to each other and did business in the digital sphere. And then David could have become a bridge to power for Mykhailo. Although this is just a beautiful hypothesis, which is not confirmed by anything.

Now Arahamia is behaving more like a gray (though very influential) cardinal in power. No one knows in what capacity David will manifest himself, if elections are held. But the development of events could be interesting.

Oleksandr Bornyakov — Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, ex-entrepreneur, lobbyist for the development of the crypto market

An interesting detail from his biography: Oleksandr was born and attended school in Bolgrad, Odessa region. It was in this small town that former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko was also born. Although this fact hardly connects one with the other.

Bornyakov has a high-quality foreign education — he received an MBA from the University of New Brunswick, Canada.

Before joining the government, Oleksandr Bornyakov had a business in Odessa. In 2007, Bornyakov founded the IT company SoftTechnics. It was later acquired by the American company Intersog.

An important detail is that Bornyakov became one of Mikhail Fedorov’s first deputies back in the spring of 2019. Bornyakov has good experience in legislative work (the law on virtual assets), and is respected and recognized in the Web3 community.

So if a «party of technocrats» is created in Ukraine, he is one of the most likely leaders.

Yaroslav Azhnyuk, technopreneur

He has a strong business + technology background. Azhnyuk is the founder and CEO of the successful Petcube, as well as the initiator and leader of new projects in the field of defense technologies: The Fourth Law (autonomy modules for robotic systems/FPV drones) and Odd Systems.

He actively expresses ideas on Ukraine’s technological development, defense innovations, war, security, and information policy. For example, he stated that using Western messengers instead of the Russian Telegram is important for the country’s information security.

In today’s environment — war, technological challenges, the need for defense and innovation — people with experience in IT and defense-tech can be in high demand from society. Azhnyuk combines these competencies.

In addition, Petcube is a startup that has been successful outside of Ukraine, and Azhnyuk has experience entering global markets. This gives him the image of a «successful businessman who understands how the world works» — which may attract some voters, especially those who are focused on reforms, innovations, and Western standards.

Oleksandr Olshansky, techno entrepreneur

He was one of the founders of the UA-IX traffic exchange network, has been working in the Internet services market for over 20 years, heads the Internet Invest Group holding (Imena.ua, Mirohost) and the consulting company Olshansky and Partners.

Olshansky is the founder of what was until recently the largest IT conference in Ukraine, iForum. As a well-known businessman and «veteran» of the Ukrainian Internet, Olshansky has a certain reputation, resources, and connections that could help in the election campaign, if he decides to go there, of course.

In April 2025, the publication «Ukrainian Pravda» reported that its interlocutors in the government were convinced that some non-public preparations for the elections had already begun. And allegedly, among those involved in the process of non-public preparations, according to sources, is Oleksandr Olshansky.

«I don’t see any organization of the pre-election process. Although, maybe, I don’t know something,» Mr. Olshansky told dev.ua at the time. Although he confirmed that he did indeed sometimes visit the OP as a consultant on opinion polls and working with this data. «I communicate with everyone, in principle. I know Mykhailo Fedorov,» he added.

Alexander Kardakov. IT businessman

He has created many iconic companies on the market, including Datagroup, Octava Capital, Incom, and Megatrade. Some of his projects have existed for over two decades.

Kardakov is also an entrepreneur in the field of cybersecurity: he founded a group of companies (including Octava Defence, Octava Capital) and has many years of experience in defense developments.

So Kardakov has many of the basic «building blocks» needed to become a political figure: expertise, reputation, resources, and relevant topics.

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