Стас Юрасов That's Life 20 April 2026, 15:51

An end to paper complaints and receptions. How e-Thoughts will work in Diia: an analysis of the new experimental service from the Ministry of Digital Affairs

Imagine a situation: they can’t patch a huge hole in your yard for a month, or the local government is planning to build a park. Previously, to somehow influence this, you had to write paper appeals, collect signatures from neighbors at the entrance, or take time off work to get to the reception desk of an official. The Cabinet of Ministers decided to transfer this outdated process to a smartphone.

Pilot for five regions

To begin with, the feature will be tested in a test mode. The experiment will last two years and will operate in five regions: Vinnytsia, Volyn, Zaporizhia, Ternopil, and Kharkiv.

The main goal is to transfer communication between people and city halls (or military administrations) from offline to a convenient digital format, where every step is tracked and processes become transparent.

«The system knows where you live»: how registration will be checked

It won’t work to bombard the mayor of a foreign city with complaints for the sake of entertainment. The system rigidly ties the user to his territorial community. Both citizens of Ukraine and foreigners with residence permits can write «eDumky», but the algorithm will let you through only if you prove your connection to the city.

«Diya» instantly «taps» state registers through the national data exchange bus «Trembita». You will be allowed in if at least one of the seven criteria is confirmed:

Declared place of residence (registration).
Availability of real estate in this community.
Payment of taxes to the local budget.
IDP status registered here.
Full-time study at a local university or college.
Receiving a pension at the place of residence.
You are the founder of an LLC or a sole proprietorship registered in this community.

Mechanics: from idea to solution

The process of submitting «eDumka» resembles petitions, but it is more flexible and adapted to the realities of cities and villages.

Formatting: You describe the essence of the problem or suggestion. You can add precise geolocation, photos of the broken road, or screenshots of documents to the text.
Gathering support (likes): After passing moderation, the initiative is published in «Actions». You have exactly 14 calendar days to gather the necessary support from your neighbors.
The magic barrier of 0,1%: For an idea to work, it must gain the support of at least 0,1% of the official number of residents of the community (this data will be pulled from the State Health Service registers).
Strict SLA for officials: If the barrier is overcome, the eDuMka automatically goes to the local council. Officials have no more than 15 calendar days to consider it (the deadline can be extended only in one case — if the issue requires a vote at a council session).
Quality assessment: The city hall’s response is published in «Actions». The user reads it and can rate it directly in the application: did they solve the problem or did they just respond with a banal reply?

An interesting nuance: even if your e-Opinion does not gain the required 0,1% in two weeks, local authorities still see it and can take it into work on their own initiative.

Moderation, «Diya.Office» and protection against trolls

To prevent the «eDumok» feed from turning into chaos and political battles, the Ministry of Digital Affairs has prescribed strict moderation rules (it will last up to 3 business days).

What is strictly prohibited:

Obscene language and insults.
Any calls for separatism, violence, incitement to hatred, or propaganda for totalitarian regimes.
Topics that do not concern local authorities at all. If you write a complaint about a court decision, a mobile operator’s tariff, a criminal case, or taxes, such an opinion simply will not be published.

If someone initiates «toxic» behavior in the comments, any user can send a report (complaint). But there is a safeguard against spam attacks: one person can only send one complaint for a specific post.

This process will be moderated by authorized employees of local councils. They will work in a special closed environment «Diya.Office», logging in exclusively with a qualified electronic signature (QES).

Local authorities will be able to conduct their own surveys

The service will also work in the opposite direction. Mayors and military administrations will be able to create their own polls to find out the opinion of the community (for example, which park project to choose). Polls can contain text, graphics, or audio.

Everything is very strict here: you can only vote once, and it is technically impossible to change or withdraw your vote. It is forbidden to raise issues of taxes, the budget, or amnesty in such polls. The results will be stored on the portal’s servers for 3 years.

At whose expense is the banquet?

The implementation of this feature will be free for local budgets. According to the document, the development of new functionality in the mobile application and on the portal will be financed by international donors through grants and technical assistance.

But the technical administration, server support, and uninterrupted operation of the system will fall on the shoulders of the state. These costs will be covered from the Ministry of Digital Economy’s budget program «Electronic Governance». To understand the scale: in the State Budget for 2026, 1 billion 195 million hryvnias have been allocated for the administration and development of the entire «Diya» portal under this article.