Ігор Вишневський That's Life 13 October 2026, 15:12

How the State Emergency Service is digitizing. CDTO Roman Primush spoke about new registers and AI in the service of rescuers, as well as the agency's cyber defense against Russian threats

In the face of a full-scale war, the public sector is forced to evolve, transforming digitalization from a tool for routine optimization into a matter of national security. The State Emergency Service has also undergone a significant transformation in recent years, from integrating the latest warning and emergency response systems to creating large-scale industry registers and implementing artificial intelligence solutions.

What key digital projects / services / products are being implemented in the work of the State Emergency Service?

As Roman Primush, CDTO of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, told dev.ua, a number of important digital products were implemented during 2025-2026.

Among them is the forces and means management system, the central subsystem of which was put into permanent operation back in April 2025. As a result, reverse integration was ensured between this system and the 112 system for automatic data exchange on emergency events.

In addition, a nationwide alert system with the ability to differentiate alerts by district was put into permanent operation in January 2025. Also, with the participation of SES specialists, it was possible to deploy an operational information system for targeted alerting via mobile operator networks (Cell Broadcast).

It is worth adding that the State Emergency Service has also worked on new state registers — the Register of Territories Contaminated / Presumably Contaminated with Explosive Objects has been created and put into testing, and the electronic Register of Fire and Rescue Units to ensure local fire protection. In addition, the Register of Liability Insurance Contracts of Business Entities and the Register of Fire Safety Auditors have been developed and implemented. According to Roman Prymus, this should contribute to the digitalization of supervision processes and increase their transparency.

A separate block includes a number of measures that the service has taken to digitalize the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. This concerns the modernization of systems for the prompt collection, processing and timely dissemination of hydrometeorological information and information on the level of environmental pollution. In addition, weather forecasters have received and are using a new modern forecasting tool in their work. The mobile application "tsePogoda" has also been introduced.

Among the achievements of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, Roman Primush also mentioned the digitalization of scientific works of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the creation of an automated fire monitoring system that uses satellite data to detect thermal anomalies and potential fire centers, as well as the development of a web platform for climate change in Ukraine.

Digitalization has also affected decisions regarding water balance in river basins; data on yields, sown areas, fertilizers, and irrigation; monitoring and forecasting of atmospheric and soil drought; and thunderstorm direction finding.

The digital achievements of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine do not end there, as an interactive atlas of maps of temperature, precipitation, climate norms and other indicators has also been implemented, and a web platform for studying the consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP is currently being created. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine is also involved in the development of software tools for visualizing satellite data on pollutants over the territory of Ukraine, and an information and analytical complex has been developed based on the IMSMA Core mine action information management system for monitoring, planning and analyzing demining activities.

Another important step concerns the internal operations of the service, which have significantly improved with the introduction of a single corporate workspace for the SES system. According to Roman Primush, this has allowed to unify information exchange processes, strengthen the level of protection of electronic correspondence, ensure reliable data storage, and apply modern tools for collaborative work with documents.

“Further development of the corporate cloud environment is considered one of the key tools for the transition to a paperless environment and digitalization of the internal processes of the State Emergency Service,” assured the CDTO of the State Emergency Service.

Who are the main donors of digital projects?

Roman Prymus noted that a significant amount of projects on the digitalization of the State Emergency Service are implemented at the expense of the state budget. However, in cases where there is a critical need for the rapid deployment of certain solutions or in the absence of state funding, the service attracts the assistance of international partners to implement certain initiatives.

Among them is the Finnish Meteorological Institute, which supports digitalization projects of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

Also among the donors is the Eastern Europe Foundation, thanks to whose support the software for the Register of Territories Contaminated/Probably Contaminated with Explosive Objects was developed.

The German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) funded a solution to support the development of public warning systems, and the USAID project “Cybersecurity of Critical Infrastructure of Ukraine” helped financially support measures to strengthen the cyber protection of information and communication systems. FAO and WFP assisted in the implementation of digital solutions for assessing the state of land resources.

In addition, Google provided support for the development of cloud infrastructure, corporate digital services, and collaboration tools for the State Emergency Service.

What factors hinder digitalization?

Among the main factors influencing the pace of digital transformation of the State Emergency Service, Roman Primush primarily names limited resources and the need to prioritize funding for wartime tasks.

"In wartime, a significant portion of resources is directed to meeting the service’s primary needs, including the acquisition and maintenance of emergency and rescue equipment, equipment, and means of supporting the activities of units. This directly affects the pace of planned modernization of the information and communication infrastructure," he states.

Another blocker of digitalization, the CDTO of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine calls the shortage of qualified IT and cyber specialists, because the development of digital services requires not only financial resources, but also specialists in development, administration, cybersecurity, data analytics, cloud technologies, and information systems integration.

“Competition with the private sector for such specialists remains a significant challenge for the public sector,” admits Roman Primush.

The representative of the State Emergency Service also calls the constant increase in the level of cyber threats a challenge in modern realities, as digitalization occurs simultaneously with the need to constantly strengthen system protection. “New digital services require appropriate measures for network segmentation, access control, end device protection, security event monitoring, backup, and business continuity. Thus, a significant part of the resources is directed not only to the creation of new digital services, but also to ensuring their stability and cyber security,” explained Roman Primush.

Artificial intelligence at the service of the State Emergency Service

As Roman Primush said, the State Emergency Service is actively implementing and using artificial intelligence tools and automated data analysis systems.

Today, as Primush says, these technologies allow us to solve a number of complex tasks:

application of AI for rapid collection, structuring and processing of large data sets from open sources for the purpose of monitoring the operational situation;
using specialized machine learning algorithms to decipher remote sensing data, which significantly speeds up the process of detecting explosive objects and assessing the level of contamination of territories;
operational translation of technical, regulatory and other documentation;
integration of neural networks into the software of unmanned aircraft complexes and robotic systems to automate reconnaissance processes, search and rescue operations, and object recognition in real time;
automation of routine operations, preparation of reporting documentation and acceleration of decision-making processes through the use of integrated generative AI tools in the corporate work environment.

How to satisfy the personnel shortage in the public sector

Roman Prymus says that to overcome the personnel shortage, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine combines the development of its own specialists, increasing the digital competence of its staff, and attracting young specialists. According to him, the main task is to create conditions under which specialists can professionally develop directly within the State Emergency Service system and work with modern technologies.

For this purpose, the following is carried out:

increasing the digital literacy of employees;
organization of specialized training in relevant IT and cybersecurity areas;
attracting young professionals;
using opportunities for international technical assistance and partner educational programs;
application of financial incentive mechanisms and additional payments to specialists in relevant areas.

Cybersecurity VS constant cyberattacks from the Russian Federation

According to the CDTO of the State Emergency Service, a multi-level cyber defense model is used to protect the information and communication systems of the State Emergency Service, which provides for the protection of the network perimeter, end devices, server infrastructure, and centralized monitoring of information security events.

In particular, as Roman Primush says, the service uses next-generation firewalls (NGFW), endpoint protection (EDR), and a centralized security event monitoring (SIEM) system.

Particular emphasis is placed on timely detection of cyber threats and prompt response to cyber incidents. Thus, mechanisms are being developed for centralized collection and analysis of security events, monitoring network activity, detecting anomalous behavior, and responding to potential incidents.

At the same time, as Roman Primush assures, the protection of accounts and privileged access is being strengthened, the principles of separation of powers, minimum necessary access rights, and control of the actions of users with elevated privileges are being applied.

“Given constant cyber threats, one of the priorities is also the segmentation of information and communication infrastructure, the reservation of critical resources and ensuring the continuity of information systems. Geographically distributed data backup and replication are of particular importance, which allows increasing the resilience of digital infrastructure to physical damage, equipment failures and cyber incidents,” said Roman Primush, answering our publication’s questions.

An important component of this approach, he added, is not only preventing cyberattacks, but also ensuring the ability of the State Emergency Service to timely detect, localize and neutralize cyberthreats, while maintaining the availability of critical information resources and the continuity of management of forces and means.

What lessons did the State Emergency Service learn from recent cyber incidents?

Roman Prymus is convinced that protection should cover not only the external perimeter, but also the internal network.

“Employee workstations remain one of the possible ways for attackers to penetrate information systems. Therefore, even internal connections and requests should be verified, and access to resources should be granted only in accordance with defined authorities,” he says.

The CDTO of the State Emergency Service insists that it is necessary to strengthen control over the actions of users with extended access rights, and the actions of administrators and other privileged users must be recorded and monitored.

“This makes it possible to timely detect the use of compromised accounts, unauthorized actions or personnel errors. It is important to ensure constant monitoring of data integrity and changes. Security systems must automatically detect suspicious or unusual changes in information systems and databases and promptly notify responsible specialists about them. This allows you to respond to an incident at an early stage, without waiting for a leak or other negative consequences,” notes Roman Primush.

According to the representative of the State Emergency Service, cyber resilience is impossible without backup and recovery capabilities, so information protection should include not only preventing unauthorized access, but also ensuring the availability and integrity of critical data.

“Digitalization and cybersecurity should develop simultaneously. A new digital service should be created taking into account security requirements at the design stage, not after its implementation. In general, the main conclusion is that cyber defense should be multi-layered, constant, and focused not only on preventing attacks, but also on their timely detection and response,” summarizes Primush.

Main tasks in digitalization

Roman Primush calls one of the main tasks in the digital development of the State Emergency Service in the near future the maximum rejection of the use of paper media by scaling the capabilities of the corporate cloud environment Google Workspace.

“An important step is the development of electronic document management at absolutely all levels of the department’s structure,” he says.

Primush calls the full implementation and further development of the electronic registry of fire and rescue units a separate important priority.

“This information system will allow digitalization of the processes of accounting, monitoring, and coordination of units on the ground, which is critically important for strengthening fire safety in communities,” states the CDTO of the State Emergency Service.

Another priority, he calls the development of a unified information environment and comprehensive integration, in particular the formation of a holistic ecosystem that unites all the department’s digital services.

“The key focus is to ensure seamless integration with external systems and state registers of other central executive bodies. This will allow automating data exchange, avoiding duplication of information, and providing management with reliable analytics for prompt decision-making,” adds Primush.

The latter also considers the development of a highly available, fault-tolerant and secure IT infrastructure to be important steps. In particular, this concerns the redundancy of critical information resources, the development of geographically distributed data storage and replication, increasing the fault tolerance of data centers and information systems, segmenting the network infrastructure, strengthening the protection of end devices and centralized monitoring of cybersecurity events.

“In parallel, capabilities will be developed to detect, respond to cyber incidents, and restore information systems after disruptions,” assures Primush.

Thus, he is convinced that the digital transformation of the State Emergency Service is considered not only as the implementation of new information systems, but also a comprehensive change in approaches to management, information exchange, service provision, data use, and ensuring the cyber resilience of the service.

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