Ігор Вишневський War
20 August 2026, 09:00
2026-08-20
"Additional signatures do not guarantee additional security." After the tragedy near Kyiv, miltech events are on pause. How long will it last and what do the organizers of large events say
Stands worth thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars. Large halls with an audience almost like during concerts. Speakers from the Ukrainian miltech sector as «stars». Vivid field tests of new equipment samples, no less vivid photos and videos on social networks.
Miltech events have been really big in recent years, as the industry itself has become. As sensitive as this topic is in terms of security, marketing here, as in any other business, has been the main driver. However, on July 24, something happened that put events in the miltech sector on hold — Russian missiles attacked participants in a defense event near Kyiv, killing more than 10 people and injuring about 100.
Stands worth thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars. Large halls with an audience almost like during concerts. Speakers from the Ukrainian miltech sector as «stars». Vivid field tests of new equipment samples, no less vivid photos and videos on social networks.
Miltech events have been really big in recent years, as the industry itself has become. As sensitive as this topic is in terms of security, marketing here, as in any other business, has been the main driver. However, on July 24, something happened that put events in the miltech sector on hold — Russian missiles attacked participants in a defense event near Kyiv, killing more than 10 people and injuring about 100.
It is hardly worth delving into whether a massive defense-related event is a legitimate goal in the sense of international law, because for Russia, international law simply does not exist. Especially against the background of the fact that the Russian Federation kills civilians in residential areas almost every day, and enemy FPV drones hunt for a vegetable seller in Kherson. The main thing is that such events throughout the entire period of a full-scale war were and remain a likely target for enemy strikes, and everyone in the miltech industry was well aware of this, which is why strict (or at least some) security measures were introduced.
Currently, some of the already planned events have been canceled, some have been postponed. It is difficult to say how seriously this pause will slow down the development of the industry as a whole, because the consequences can only be assessed in the long term. But as of now, no one is definitely ready to take responsibility for the potential danger to participants in mass events.
dev.ua received comments from the Brave1 cluster, which is the organizer of the largest defense event Defense Tech Valley in Lviv, as well as the Kyiv Growth Summit team, which had a significant number of speakers from the defense industry in the program and was supposed to take place in Kyiv on August 1. Both events have now been postponed, but the organizers have not completely given up on holding them this year. How do they see it? And how does the miltech industry generally see holding defense events in the future? About this in our material.
Direct losses of over UAH 500,000, but unchanged plans. Will Kyiv Growth Summit take place this year?
First of all, it is worth emphasizing that the phrase «miltech events» can include events of completely different types, levels of mass and secrecy, which, accordingly, carry lower or higher risks. If we are talking exclusively about speeches by speakers from the miltech industry, without placing exhibition stands of manufacturers and practical demonstrations of weapons samples in field conditions, then such an event can still be held in a room with a bomb shelter or directly on the underground level of a building.
The organizers of the Kyiv Growth Summit 2026, which does not focus exclusively on the miltech sphere, but contains a powerful defense track and has invited a number of top managers of defense companies as speakers, despite the postponement of the event, still intend to hold it by the end of the year.
The team says it is looking for a location that will meet all security requirements and can comfortably accommodate over 1,000 participants. «At the same time, we continue to coordinate all necessary processes to hold the conference exactly as we envisioned it,» team representatives noted in a comment to dev.ua.
The Kyiv Growth Summit 2026 team assured that they are in touch with specialized services and other organizers of large technology events and are forming «a clear understanding of the updated requirements and procedures for organizing large-scale events in the current conditions.»
According to the organizers of the event, its postponement had significant financial consequences for them.
«At the time of the decision, the conference was almost fully prepared, so part of the costs cannot be recovered. Currently, we can estimate direct losses at over 0.5 million UAH. At the same time, for us, this could not be an argument in favor of holding the event under conditions in which we would not be confident in a sufficient level of security,» the organizers told dev.ua.
As representatives of the Kyiv Growth Summit explained to dev.ua, the tragedy in the Kyiv region became a topic of serious discussions and reflection within the team. «Although the Kyiv Growth Summit is a technology conference, among our speakers, partners and participants there are representatives of the defense industry, so we cannot consider the issue of security as a formal requirement,» they say.
In their opinion, the tragedy has already significantly affected the market, as some major events have been postponed or canceled, organizers are reviewing their protocols, and venues are much more cautious about holding events related to defense.
At the same time, the organizers of the Kyiv Growth Summit assure that they had a separate security plan even before the postponement, but after the tragedy they additionally reviewed it and worked out possible response scenarios.
Brave1 is looking for new formats for Defense Tech Valley
Last year, Defense Tech Valley was held in Lviv on such a scale that it almost overshadowed the city’s always main technology event, the IT Arena.
After the tragedy near Kyiv, the Brave1 cluster team announced the postponement of the event, but not its cancellation, although the format and location of the event are still unknown.
Screenshot from the Defense Tech Valley website
dev.ua asked the organizers about this, but we only learned that the Brave1 cluster team «is actively searching for the optimal updated format for Defense Tech Valley and is in contact with key stakeholders.»
As the cluster team assured, the main priority is to ensure maximum quality and benefit from the event with the greatest possible safety for participants. «This is not an easy task, but we hope that everything will work out. We are not ready to announce the details yet,» Brave1 noted.
At the same time, the cluster team assured that they are working on new formats of interaction with the audience, in particular distributed or virtual ones, to ensure the further development of the ecosystem without losing the speed of communication between manufacturers and the military.
For example, recently, with the participation of the cluster, the first online training ground dedicated to «FPV features» was held — components and solutions that enhance the capabilities of classic FPV drones.
Justified increased security measures vs. unnecessary bureaucracy. What will win?
Brave1 says that the increased security measures in response to the tragedy near Kyiv are a completely understandable and necessary reaction to what happened.
«At the same time, it is critically important that this reaction does not hinder the technological development of the defense sector. This would mean a loss of momentum and, as a result, a technological advantage over the enemy,» the defense cluster emphasizes.
Former Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov during Defense Tech Valley-2025
They reminded that the vast majority of events with Brave1 participation are not open and public: they are held exclusively for a narrow circle of participants in the defense ecosystem (developers, military personnel, and specialists directly involved in the creation and use of weapons). «Participants are aware of the nature of the risks and are working to minimize them,» the Brave1 team stated.
The cluster added that security protocols include the principle of information limitation, where each participant receives only the amount of data that is necessary to perform their tasks. Additional secrecy modes, legending, and other adaptive mechanisms may also be used. «For security reasons, we deliberately do not comment on specific organizational tools,» Brave1 emphasized.
At the same time, the defense cluster is not sure that creating a single centralized algorithm with mandatory approval of all measures is the right decision. «The more links of approval and the more people receive complete information, the higher the risk of its leakage. Additional signatures by themselves do not guarantee additional security,» Brave1 explains.
The cluster team added that a rigidly standardized algorithm could also become an object of study by the enemy. «If all activities are carried out according to the same model or in the same places, the enemy will be able to adapt its intelligence and means of destruction to this scenario. Security should be built not only on rules, but also on adaptability,» Brave1 concluded.
In turn, the organizers of the Kyiv Growth Summit say that the tragedy near Kyiv highlighted two systemic problems.
The first, they call the lack of large protected locations.
«Finding a venue in Kyiv that can simultaneously accommodate over 1,000 people, fits the format of a technology conference, and has a shelter of appropriate capacity is extremely difficult. This is no longer a problem for a specific organizer or a specific conference, but an infrastructure challenge for the entire large-scale events market,» they claim.
The Kyiv Growth Summit team calls the lack of a sufficiently transparent and understandable approval algorithm for organizers a second problematic issue. «When it comes to a large event with representatives of the defense industry, the organizer must clearly understand which structures to contact, what approvals to obtain, what criteria the location must meet, and who is responsible for each stage,» they say.
That is why the Kyiv Growth Summit team is now not only looking for a new venue, but also in dialogue with responsible structures and other organizers.
«The result of this situation should be not just stricter rules, but clearer and unified procedures for the entire market,» the organizers of the event expressed their opinion.
Where is the limit of a reasonable compromise?
In response to the question of how to ensure a balance between the need to present new products and the formation of a powerful domestic miltech community and the safety of participants, the organizers of the Kyiv Growth Summit emphasize that the key is in a constructive dialogue between the state, industry, and organizers.
«Defense tech is developing extremely rapidly, and professional platforms are needed for this ecosystem. It is there that manufacturers, engineers, investors, the military, potential partners, and customers meet. Completely abandoning such events would mean limiting one of the industry’s development channels,» the event organizers believe.
At the same time, they emphasize that the format must adapt to reality. «Organizers need clear security requirements and procedures, the state needs the ability to monitor their compliance, and the industry needs a responsible attitude to what, where, to whom, and in what format can be demonstrated,» the Kyiv Growth Summit concludes.
According to the team, the question today is not whether or not to hold such events — the question is how to create rules under which they can take place as safely as possible.
The organizers of the Kyiv Growth Summit conclude that in the short term, the tragedy near Kyiv will lead to a decrease in the number of large open events, a transition to more intimate formats, and much stricter requirements for locations and access.
«But we do not think that this will mean the disappearance of defense events as a phenomenon. The industry’s need for experience exchange, partnerships, investments, and networking has not disappeared. On the contrary, along with the development of Ukrainian defense tech, it is only growing. During the years of full-scale war, the Ukrainian market has repeatedly shown its ability to adapt to new circumstances. I think we will find a solution this time too — it’s just that the rules for holding such events will be different,» the Kyiv Growth Summit team said.
Does it make sense to hold Ukrainian miltech events abroad?
We also asked the Kyiv Growth Summit team and the Brave1 defense cluster to comment on the feasibility of holding such events abroad, which, on the one hand, really solves the security problem to a large extent, but, on the other hand, gives rise to a number of other problems. In particular, these are difficult logistics, the need to transport «specific» cargo across the border, and the corresponding organizational and legal nuances when it comes to arms exhibitions, and most importantly, how to attract the appropriate Ukrainian audience to such events abroad.
Brave1 agrees that holding events abroad eliminates some risks, but creates others. As they say in the cluster, holding events abroad does eliminate some security risks, but not all — because we see that the enemy is actively conducting hybrid actions in European countries, so there can still be no full security guarantee.
Demonstration of the TOLOKA underwater drone at Defense Tech Valley-2025
On the other hand, the European location greatly simplifies the participation of foreign investors, companies, and government officials, so Brave1 already has successful experience in holding foreign events, mainly investment-oriented.
«On the other hand, there are significant limitations — first of all, these are logistics, and the difficulty of attracting a relevant audience to events, whose feedback is especially valuable for developers. We can definitely say that we will develop this direction, but completely transferring such events abroad is not realistic,» the cluster believes.
According to Brave1 representatives, event organizers need to make decisions individually — depending on the goal, audience, and specifics of the developments.
This opinion is shared by the organizers of the Kyiv Growth Summit. The forum team claims that international defense tech events are necessary for Ukraine, as they are an opportunity to present Ukrainian technologies to partners, attract investments, build international connections, and enter new markets, but they cannot completely replace events within Ukraine.
«A significant portion of manufacturers, engineers, military personnel, teams, and people who directly work with technologies and shape the ecosystem are located here. For many of them, regular participation in foreign conferences is simply impossible due to logistics, cost, or other constraints,» say the organizers of the Kyiv Growth Summit.
The forum team calls for the question not to be posed as a choice between Ukraine and abroad.
«We need both formats: international events to integrate Ukrainian defense tech into the global market and strong professional platforms within the country. Our task now is to find a way to hold the latter responsibly and safely,» they emphasize.
Will there be a defense track at the IT Arena and what about other events?
We also tried to find out whether the organizers of this year’s IT Arena are planning a defense track along with the «civilian IT» track, as was the case last year, but we did not receive a response to our request.
In addition, the dev.ua editorial team contacted the organizers of IRON DEMO 2026, which was supposed to take place on August 28-29 in Lviv, but was canceled, regarding this material. However, the operational director of IRON Cluster, Anastasia Bondarenko, refused to comment in depth on the vision of this issue.
The press service of the large drone manufacturer TAF Industries, which is a regular participant in all-Ukrainian defense exhibitions and events, stated that they are ready to return with a comment on this issue at the end of August, as the internal security service is constantly reviewing and strengthening internal security policies. We also contacted another large defense manufacturer, Vyriy Industries, on this matter, and will add their answers to the material if they are received.
Instead of conclusions
It is obvious that the tragedy near Kyiv will force the organizers of major defense events to significantly strengthen security measures and be more careful with communication to a wide audience. At least for the first time. At the same time, another thing is no less obvious — any business, especially one as rapidly growing as Ukrainian defense-tech, needs such measures and it would be at least short-sighted to completely abandon them. For now, the pause will continue: either until the memories of this tragic event are still quite sharp in society, or until the authorities develop a clear mechanism for coordinating and holding such events and enter the miltech business with it.
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