Over the past couple of years, Diia has become the digital foundation of the state. Now, the application is used by more than 20 million Ukrainians. The editors of online.ua found out from Mstyslav Banik, the head of the development of electronic services at the Ministry of Digital Transformation, whether summonses will be distributed through Diia, whether AI will work in the application, when to expect new online services and countries would like to adopt Diia's experience.
While the editors were preparing to interview Mstyslav, he signed a contract with the Ukrainian Armed Forces: "I had a long-time desire to join the Armed Forces, and reservation was never decisive for me." The Diia chief said he would return to work in the ministry after martial law and demobilisation ended.
No one but us will win the war
Ukrainians are very stable people ready to stay awake at night due to anxiety and go to work in the morning to move together. This is a fantastic trait of our people; it probably depends a lot on it. Ukrainians continue to support the fundraisings and join the army to defend their homeland.
The most significant phenomenon of Ukrainians is that people who fought for Ukraine were exterminated for centuries. Of course, some people remained silent and accepted the circumstances, but some continued to fight for Ukraine generation after generation. And this is the most fantastic thing for me.
Ukrainians have a sense of freedom and know what they are striving for. A Ukrainian is not just a line in a citizenship passport. It is who we feel we are.
My dad served in the 3rd Separate Special Purpose Regiment, which had the motto "No one but us." I often mention him in the context of many events around me.
"No one but us" implies that if we are already destined to solve these problems, we should not transfer them to others and wait for someone else to solve them.
Mstyslav Banik
Head of the development of electronic services at the Ministry of Digital Transformation
Now, we have the task of winning the war. No one but us will win it. If we want to improve our life, no one but us will improve it. I call on everyone to take responsibility for victory — not forget to report, support the military, and never lose heart.
Diia is the leading digital product of Ukraine
When a full-scale invasion began, almost all of the issues facing the government were unpredictable and unexpected. Thanks to Diшa, we were able to solve many things. Our team worked almost around the clock.
During these two years, Diia became the main way of delivering documents, services and social benefits to Ukrainians.
Ukrainians no longer ask us if this or that service will be available in the application. They ask: "When will it be available?". Electronic services have become a priority for people.
Helping people and protecting the state are my most important priorities. In 2019, I left my own business and joined the Ministry of Digital Transformation to do something good for the country and its people, which is still valid for me.
Mstyslav Banik
Head of the development of electronic services at the Ministry of Digital Transformation
A team that wants change
We had a round-the-clock format of work even before the full-scale invasion. At the beginning of the invasion, we hardly slept for several consecutive months. [We] finished work at 3-4 a.m. and started at 9 a.m. Now, we sleep a little more when there are no air alarms. Mykhailo Fedorov is not the minister who works from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. He does even more than we do.
A round-the-clock work format is normal for a team that wants a change. Moreover, there is always a lot of work and the question arises as to how much time you can manage in a unit of time. Our work is measured in results, not in process. The team always wants to do more.
At the beginning of a full-scale invasion, a YePidtrymka [E-Support in English—Ed.] program was quickly launched to provide people living in occupied territories and active hostilities with sources of livelihood. We saw hundreds of thousands of people immediately start applying to the program, which confirms that we are on the right track.
Diia has changed the digital culture
Diia can be compared to two modern cars. From the point of view of innovation, Tesla has changed the car market. This has become a vast impetus for each major brand to have its own electric car line.
Diia has changed the digital culture and made a huge push for everyone.
Diia is also similar to Lexus, where many things are thought out. Lexus has proactive safety features, where the car monitors instead of the driver whether there is someone in the adjacent lane or whether the driver is holding the steering wheel correctly.
We also took care of our users. Diia tries to solve a vast number of problems instead of a person. So, Diia is Tesla as an innovation, and the user experience is more like Lexus.
The history of e-passports' appearance
When developing digital passports, we realised that many problems related to passports are their copies. We discussed this extensively with the NBU, which mostly takes these copies and has extensive experience regulating them.
Everything revolved around screenshots, passport printing, and so on. Later, something occurred to me, and I said, "Stop, let's stop because now we're trying to figure out how to put diesel in a Tesla."
We have a new technology — a digital passport — and we're trying to figure out how to pull the old experience onto it. We have to reinvent everything.
This is how the sharing of passport copies appeared. When you show the barcode of the digital passport, the employee scans it, you get a notification, smile, blink, and send a copy of the passport through Diia.
Educational documents in Diia
The entire set of diplomas and certificates is now available in Diia. This is a significant leap forward for us, especially for people who have lost their documents.
In Diia, you can already add education documents, namely:
Middle School and High School certificate of education;
Certificate of worker qualification assignment;
Qualified worker diploma;
Professional junior bachelor's diploma;
Junior Specialist diploma;
Junior bachelor's degree;
Bachelor's degree;
Specialist diploma;
Master's degree;
Ph.D. diploma;
Doctor of Arts diploma.
However, displaying documents for people from educational institutions who have remained in the occupied territories since 2014 and have not moved to Ukraine's controlled territory may be problematic.
How do military bonds work?
Military bonds are securities issued by the state during martial law. Ukrainians invest in them with money that benefits the army and the economy. Each bond purchased contributes to the de-occupation of cities.
During the First and Second World Wars, there were also war bonds. By buying them, people lend the government money and get it back with interest.
War bonds differ in that their funds go to support the economy during the war. They have a certain period of validity. On the day of payment, the deposit is returned together with interest.
More than 4 million military bonds worth more than 4 billion hryvnias were sold through Diia, which is the amount of money that entered Ukraine's economy.
Mstyslav Banik
Head of the development of electronic services at the Ministry of Digital Transformation
Electronic summonses for Ukrainians
Electronic summonses concern the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. The launch of any service, form of electronic summons, or notifications should be measured in quality indicators.
That is, if the relevant structures will understand that this will increase the effectiveness of military recruitment by a significant percentage, then such things may make sense, but definitely not in Diia.
Otherwise, running services for the sake of services makes no sense. The Prime Minister said we do not need to mobilise as many as 500,000 people. The main thing is not to get involved in all kinds of fakes on this topic. There were cases when videos of the TRC workers packing people into buses were shared on the network. However, these videos are often shot by Russians so that Ukrainians get the impression that this is treason.
How Diia solves problems
The Ministry of Digital Transformation has launched a chatbot, eVorog [which means "Here is the enemy"—Ed.], in Telegram. People send geolocations of Russian equipment or occupiers to help destroy the enemy. We receive requests from the Armed Forces of Ukraine for information on the types of Russian weapons and their locations so that we can map their data.
We have a lot going on in response to a request. For example, we launched the Marriage Application service — in just a few minutes, you can submit an application for marriage registration to Civil registration on the Diia portal. You can specify the ceremony's place, time and format in the application. Then, you need to come to the registry office ceremony. Now, we are working on a new service so that you can get married via video call using the Diia application — Marriage Online. Because many people are abroad and at the front. Perhaps we would have come to this without the war, but now there is an urgent need.
The YePidtrymka program was launched so that people could receive financial assistance. Last year, the "The LightBulbs Exchange" service was launched through Diia—it's like a civilian project, but it took place in connection with the invasion. We also launched an interactive map of shelters and "Points of Invincibility" so that people could assess their condition and access.
We also made it possible to register for the national multitest through Diia quickly and conveniently. Having an ID card or a foreign passport in the application and activating Diia. Signature is enough. Document sharing through Diia will help pull data from the passport into the registration form. We made this integration to make life easier for hundreds of thousands of people.
They also added the ability to watch and listen to Ukrainian television and radio in the Diia application. Its purpose is exclusively military. The Russians tried to destroy our TV towers, seize TV channels, and launch fakes about the surrender and escape of Zelenskyy — the only way to deliver trustworthy information to Ukrainians was by Diia.
Diia new services
Our team is now working on clearing the car through Diia. This is one of the most long-awaited services. The bill that can legalise and create an opportunity to launch customs clearance is already in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. We are also working on a beta version of the artificial intelligence assistant in Diia.
We have a task to launch projects related to war, veterans, social services and anti-corruption.
In the future, we will approach the tools of electronic democracy, but this is in the background, while the priority is the projects that the war puts before us.
Ukraine is an exporter of digital services
On May 23, 2023, the first Diia Summit occurred in Washington, where our application was presented. Diia distinguishes Ukraine as a world leader in e-government innovations.
Ukraine startup founders pitched their decisions to international investors at the SelectUSA investment summit. The event's guests were representatives of over 1,500 companies from over 80 global markets.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced a partnership with Colombia and Zambia to explore opportunities to improve existing digital systems, develop new digital services for citizens, and create a Diia counterpart.
We are in contact with many countries that are interested in our solutions. The negotiations between the states continue.
We had a successful case study with Estonia, which chose our experience as a basis for testing its mobile services concept. Last year, Ukraine, Great Britain and Estonia signed a Memorandum of cooperation in digitalisation.
We also opened Diia's code and provided descriptions of how it works without access to registries and security data. Open source is a global practice used by governments and technology companies worldwide.
Now, their technicians can examine the code, obtain all the details, and confirm that it is secure, which will help us deploy our product.
