OpenAI is giving Ukraine's government access to Daybreak, an AI tool that finds and fixes software flaws. The offer comes as Ukraine faces a record number of cyberattacks on hospitals, power grids, and government networks.
The tool will go to Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation. The news was announced on Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Dmytro Kushneruk, Ukraine's Consul General in San Francisco, made the announcement with Sasha Baker. Baker is OpenAI's Head of National Security Policy.
How Daybreak Works
Daybreak is built to hunt for software vulnerabilities. These are hidden coding flaws that hackers use to break into systems.
The tool runs on GPT-5.6 Sol, OpenAI's flagship large language model. This is the same kind of AI that powers ChatGPT, trained on large amounts of text and code.
Daybreak scans older systems for weak points. It checks whether a suspected flaw can actually be exploited.
It also confirms that a fix closes the hole before the patch is released. The goal is to find problems before Russian hackers do.
"We are proud to support Ukraine's cyber defenders, who are protecting essential services against attacks every day," Baker said. "Ukraine is already on the front line, and its defenders need support now."
Ukraine Faces Rising Cyberattacks
Ukraine's CERT-UA handled nearly 6,000 cyberattacks in 2025. That was a 37% increase from 2024.
Local governments and government agencies were hit the hardest. Hospitals and power grids have also been targets.
Ukraine is not the first government to get this kind of help from OpenAI. The company already gives cyber agencies in France, Germany, and Poland access to its models.
CERT Polska used the tool to find six vulnerabilities in commercial router software. The vendor has since patched all six.
OpenAI did not always allow military work. Until January 2024, its usage policy banned military and warfare activity of any kind.
That rule was removed from the policy page on January 10, 2024. Days later, CEO Sam Altman and OpenAI's VP of global affairs told reporters at Davos that the company was building cybersecurity tools with the Pentagon.
Some experts say tech firms also benefit from this work. Jamie MacColl, a cyber researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, told the BBC that Western firms gain useful intelligence from an active war zone.
"It's no surprise that OpenAI is now also providing defensive cyber security services," MacColl said.
On September 3, OpenAI pledged $1 billion in subsidized Daybreak access for defenders with limited resources around the world. The company said it would expand the program to "partner countries" within weeks.
Ukraine's access was announced on September 23, three weeks after that pledge. The offer is part of the planned expansion OpenAI described at the time.
