Ukraine’s marvel of innovation

Military experts around the world are scratching their heads. Just a week after its cross-border attack on Russian soil, Ukraine said it had captured more land than Russia had grabbed during eight months in eastern Ukraine. The big question: What was Ukraine’s secret innovation?

This is not the first time the rest of the world has marveled at Ukraine’s creativity as an underdog wunderkind against a giant Russian force. From new mental health services for war-struck citizens to a new digital system that links all of society, Ukraine is inspiring many countries from Taiwan to Estonia.

“While Ukraine often relies on foreign experience, equipment and training, at the same time it is constantly developing its own novel kit, approaches, and mechanisms which could potentially be useful elsewhere,” wrote Andreas Umland, an analyst with the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies, in the Kyiv Post.

“This new Ukrainian knowledge and experience will come in especially handy for countries which may be confronted with similar challenges.”

Perhaps one reason for the success of Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia is its people’s abilities to innovate. Ukraine’s military focus is “placed on capabilities rather than technologies,” writes defense expert Mykhaylo Lopatin, in the War on the Rocks blog. A whole system of tactics is “preferred to material solutions.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, himself an inspiration as a leader, tells Western allies that Ukraine has developed good “social infrastructure” since Russia’s first invasion in 2014, when it annexed Crimea. This includes major reforms in fighting corruption and reliance on local governments to deliver essential services more quickly and equitably.

At the military level, Ukraine relies on an informal and trusting network between tech entrepreneurs and the armed forces. A good example is Dzyga’s Paw, a charitable foundation that supplies the military with high-tech equipment, relying on foreign donations. The charity’s competitive advantage is the high transparency it offers donors who want to know their money is being used efficiently.

High qualities of thought, in other words, are the best defense against a Russia that relies on massive weapons and a rigid, top-down bureaucracy. “Ukraine’s experiences can be useful for various nations shifting from a traditional to a liberal order, from patronal to plural politics, from a closed to an open society, from oligarchy to polyarchy, from centralized to decentralized rule,” stated Dr. Umland. 

Little wonder that Russian President Vladimir Putin chose a new defense minister in May who has a record as an economist in transforming the Russian economy. The defense ministry, Mr. Putin said, “must be absolutely open to innovation, to the introduction of all advanced ideas.”