A Citizen-like chatbot allows Ukrainians to report to the government when they spot Russian troops — here's how it works

The Ukrainian government released a new app in February of 2020 that would help President Zelensky fulfill his campaign promise to root out bureaucracy. In peacetime, the app Diia was meant to be a central hub for citizens to interact with their government, allowing them to access their identity cards, pay their taxes, and receive public services.

During the war, the Ministry of Digital Transformation launched a new feature called E-Enemy, which allows any Ukrainian citizen to inform the army when they see Russian troops.

Ukrainian security forces relied on intelligence gathered over the platforms to find and locate Russian troops, as footage of the invasion flooded social media and Telegram. The internal affairs ministry created a preliminary version of the chatbot to get information on Russian troop movements. At least in one instance, the government announced intelligence gathered over Telegram helped Ukrainian troops find and destroy enemy convoys.

According to the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Diia changes that by requiring users to login and authenticate themselves via the e-passport system.

When users log in to E-Enemy through Diia, they are directed to a Telegram chatbot that asks them if they are the primary source for intelligence, along with basic information about the types of troops, whether they were moving on foot or in vehicles, and the number of troops The app has been used by over 260,000 people.

Yaroslav Druziuk

The earlier version of the app was used by an editor at a local publication. Russian troops were entering through the city of Chernihiv. Danylova begged her to find a way to inform the Ukrainian troops of the situation in the village where her family friends lived. They didn't know how to use Telegram. Danylova uploaded videos of the Russian troops that her friends had taken. She sent the information to a friend that was in the army.

The bar owner in the capital had a similar experience. She was asked to use the bot by a neighbor who had just seen some Russian drones. Churpita made sure to credit the second hand information provided by the witness. She was unsure of how useful the information was.

Ukrainian officials are hoping that the app will be able to document war crimes in the country. Mykhailo Fedorov, the head of the Ministry of Digital Transformation in Ukraine, encouraged witnesses to use the app to report information about war crimes after Russian soldiers massacred 400 civilians.

Banik said the app is doing its job.

Fedorov sees the app as an essential tool to allow everyday Ukrainians to participate in the war effort.

He said on his public Telegram channel that he would find them.