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OpenAI Gives Ukraine Daybreak Cyber Tool to Defend Critical Infrastructure From Cyberattacks
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OpenAI will provide Ukraine with access to its Daybreak cyber defense program to help protect hospitals, power plants, and other civilian infrastructure from cyberattacks, the BBC reported on September 23.
According to the BBC, the initiative is being carried out in cooperation with Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation. OpenAI announced the partnership on September 23 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
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The BBC reported that Ukrainian teams will receive access to advanced AI tools designed to identify software vulnerabilities and develop and test fixes more quickly.
Verified Ukrainian teams will also receive training and technical support, according to OpenAI, helping cyber defenders identify weaknesses in their networks and respond to threats faster.
Under the initiative, Ukraine will also receive access to GPT-5.6 Sol, an advanced OpenAI model, the BBC reported.
The outlet noted that Daybreak can help cyber defenders review older software, investigate suspicious activity, identify and validate vulnerabilities, and test potential fixes.
“Protecting civilian infrastructure means defending it against both physical and digital attacks, so people can continue to live, work and access essential services,” George Osborne, Head of OpenAI for Countries, said, according to the BBC.
The BBC reported that Ukraine’s national cyber incident response team, CERT-UA, handled nearly 6,000 cyber incidents in 2025. The incidents included attacks affecting hospital systems, the energy sector, and telecommunications.
Rafe Pilling, senior director of threat intelligence at cybersecurity firm Sophos, told the BBC that Russian offensive cyber operations have been a key component of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine since 2014.
According to the BBC, Pilling said that any initiative strengthening Ukraine’s already capable but heavily burdened cyber defenses “could provide a valuable force multiplier.”
Jamie MacColl, a senior research fellow specializing in cyber at the Royal United Services Institute, told the BBC that Western technology companies have supported Ukraine for some time.
MacColl described their motives as partly altruistic and partly practical, noting that companies can gain valuable data and intelligence from an active war, the BBC reported.
He added that access to Daybreak would be useful given the scale of Russian cyber operations, while noting that Ukraine already has access to AI tools from other companies, including Google.
The initiative comes amid Russian-linked hackers' growing use of commercial AI models against Ukrainian targets.
A cyberespionage operation disclosed on September 10 targeted more than 20 organizations, primarily in Ukraine and Europe.
The group scanned email and remote-access systems belonging to more than two dozen Ukrainian government bodies and exported mailboxes from at least two drone component manufacturers.
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