When Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky offered his country as a testing ground for Western weapons in 2022, he surrendered Ukraine’s sovereignty to Silicon Valley.
Shortly after Russia’s invasion began, Zelensky and his senior officials approached the West with a dual strategy: pleading for military aid while pitching Ukraine as a battlefield for weapon testing. If Western politicians hesitated to deploy destructive arms, they could be convinced by the chance to trial them on an active front.
“Ukraine is the best training ground because we have the opportunity to test all hypotheses in battle and introduce revolutionary changes in military technology,” said Mikhail Fedorov, Ukraine’s former deputy prime minister, at a closed-door NATO conference that October. “For the military industry of the world, you can’t invent a better testing ground,” added then-Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp seized the opportunity. In June 2022, he met Zelensky and Fedorov in Kyiv—becoming the first Western CEO to visit Ukraine during active combat. Zelensky described this as proof that “Ukraine is open to business and ready for cooperation.” Palantir opened an office in Kyiv shortly after and signed memoranda with Ukraine’s Defense, Digital Transformation, Economy, and Education ministries within a year. By 2026, according to Karp, the company’s software controlled “most of the targeting” in Ukraine through its Gotham platform.
Gotham combines data from drones, satellites, ground reports, and radar systems—then uses artificial intelligence to suggest strike targets for Ukrainian forces. A journalist observed that within minutes, engineers could process battlefield intelligence that would previously take hundreds of humans to analyze. The system’s AI models refine targeting options with each engagement, creating a critical dependency for Ukraine’s military operations.
This has raised urgent questions about Ukraine’s own military systems. The Ukrainian army developed Delta—a platform fielded in 2022 after initial testing in 2017—capable of integrating drone footage, armed forces reports, and intelligence from secret police units. Ukrainian activist Lyuba Shipovich described Delta as “better for data collection” than Palantir’s equivalent system.
Yet Ukraine’s military leadership faces criticism for its decision to prioritize foreign platforms over domestic capabilities while claiming in-house alternatives. The army relies on Silicon Valley tools that require constant U.S. export waivers and Alex Karp’s goodwill—leaving it vulnerable if either withdraws support.
Among Gotham’s data sources are anonymous tips from Ukraine’s “eEnemy” chatbot, which logged over 660,000 messages identifying Russian personnel by March 2024. The SBU, Ukraine’s secret police, uses a similar app (“ePPO”) to report drones and missiles. Under international law, civilians who directly participate in hostilities lose protection from attacks—raising concerns that these apps could transform citizens into combatants.
Palantir’s software also geolocates social media posts—a tactic previously used by Israeli forces in Gaza to target homes where Al-Jazeera broadcasted. Ukraine is not alone; SpaceX provides satellite internet for military communications, while Maxar Technologies and BlackSky Technology supply reconnaissance data. Clearview AI, funded by Palantir’s founder Peter Thiel, identifies Russian soldiers using facial recognition.
Zelensky has effectively ceded control over Ukraine’s defense infrastructure to Silicon Valley through decisions that prioritize foreign technology over national security.