Ukraine Proposes AI and Blockchain Sandbox for European Digital Services
The program has received more than 80 applications and selected 15 companies for its first cohort, while no formal European Union expansion has been confirmed.
Ukraine is exploring a broader European role for its AI and blockchain sandbox, using the program to test digital services and align AI regulation with EU rules.
Oksana Ferchuk, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, said Ukraine and Germany discussed identifying several German public services that could be adapted through the approach behind Ukraine’s Diia digital-services ecosystem.
“We want to be such a sandbox, a sandbox for Europe, where Europe can look at successful experiments or mistakes,” Ferchuk said in a Sept. 25 interview.
The government approved the sandbox project Oct. 29, 2024, and operations began in June 2025 as a joint initiative of the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Ukrainian Startup Fund.
The program received more than 80 applications during its first year. Fifteen companies were selected for the first cohort and completed testing.
The sandbox provides free legal, technology and business reviews for AI and blockchain products. Assessments may examine personal-data practices, intellectual property, compliance with the European Union’s AI Act, model architecture, cybersecurity, blockchain, smart contracts, business models and financial readiness.
The program also uses the Council of Europe’s HUDERIA methodology to assess the human-rights impact of AI systems. Its coverage includes government technology, health care, biotechnology, agriculture, defense, education, energy, culture and the digital economy.
“We have a field for constant testing and improvement of this product,” Ferchuk said.
Ukraine is working to align its AI regulation with the EU AI Act and improve interoperability between Ukrainian and European digital systems. No formal European Union agreement or cross-border expansion of the sandbox has been confirmed.
The proposal would broaden the sandbox’s relevance beyond Ukraine’s domestic technology ecosystem, but it does not specify which European products or digital services would enter the program.
