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Article · Zenodo · August 14, 2026

Digital State under Fire: Public Administration and Public Service Digitization Reform in Ukraine

Aigerim Amirova, Asset Baktiyarov, Abilzhan Galy

Aigerim Amirova
Read on innovation.ccPDFDOI 10.5281/zenodo.21937073

Abstract

Ukraine has become one of the most visible contemporary cases of public sector digital innovation. This article examines how Ukraine's public administration and public service digitization reforms have evolved from a pre-war modernization agenda into a wartime resilience system. Using a qualitative documentary case-study design, the article synthesizes evidence from international organizations and Ukraine government reports. The analysis shows that Ukraine's reform is not simply a story of a mobile application. Its distinctiveness lies in a hybrid service delivery model that combines the Diia portal and application, the Administrative Service Centre network, mobile front offices, interoperable state registers through Trembita, registry-building through Diia.Engine, and transparent reconstruction tools such as DREAM. The findings also show that wartime displacement, infrastructure damage, cybersecurity risks, digital inequality and civil service capacity constraints make digitization a public administration reform rather than a technical reform. The article argues that Ukraine's experience contributes to the literature on public sector innovation by demonstrating crisis-driven digital public infrastructure: a model in which digital services, interoperability and front-office accessibility are jointly used to preserve the citizen-state relationship under extreme pressure.

E-Government and Public ServicesPublic Administration and Political AnalysisPublic Policy and Administration Researchdigitalization of public administrationpublic service digitizationUkraine

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