Code the State

On 14 October 2026, Ukraine's military Starlink terminals stopped working at speeds above 161 km/h. That left the interceptor drones Ukraine uses against Russia's jet-powered drones unable to do their job. Helen Uvarenko talks to Oleksandr Iefremov, CEO of the Ukrainian GovTech company Kitsoft, about how Ukraine came to depend on one company, and how any government can avoid the same trap.

In this episode of Code the State, Helen Uvarenko speaks with Emily Bennett, Head of Digital Public Solutions at UNICC, and Radka Sibille, Digital Policies and Trade Coordinator at the Universal Postal Union (UPU), about the last mile of digital government, the role of postal networks in expanding access to digital public services, reusable digital solutions, and why inclusive service delivery needs to be designed from the very beginning.This is Code the State. Powered by Kitsoft, the team behind Liquio, and produced with the support of the ITU.

In this episode of Code the State, Oleksandr Iefremov speaks with Yuliia Kravchenko, GovStack Lead for Digital Wallet and researcher at TalTech, about cross-border digital identity, digital wallets, interoperability, and what it will take for governments to trust and recognise each other's digital credentials.

This is Code the State. Powered by Kitsoft, the team behind Liquio, and produced with the support of the ITU.

Why do citizens avoid using digital services that governments invest millions in?

In this new episode of Code the State, we explore trust, communication, and the implementation of digital public services - and why even well-designed platforms can struggle to gain adoption.

Guests:

Nicole Greene - GovTech communications strategist and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) advisor.

Alana Maria Ali - Digital Government and Trade Facilitation Advisor specializing in the implementation of national digital platforms.

Are governments ready to use AI in real public services?

In this episode, we discuss how AI can transform the way citizens interact with public institutions, why strong digital infrastructure matters, and how governments are moving from simple chatbots to more proactive, agentic services.

We also explore the risks, limits, and practical challenges of using AI in the public sector — from trust and accountability to the changing role of public servants.

Guests of the episode:

🔹 Yolanda Martinez — global leader in digital government and public sector transformation, Practice Manager for Digital Development at the World Bank.

🔹 Oleksandr Iefremov — CEO of Kitsoft, the company whose team contributed to the creation of the first AI assistant for public services in Ukraine.

This is Code the State. Powered by Kitsoft, the team behind Liquio, and produced with the support of the ITU.

In this episode, we explore how internet governance really works, who stands behind decisions on safety, access, and regulation — and why access to the internet does not equal equality.

Guests of the episode:

🔹 Dr. Ibiso Kingsley-George — internet governance and digital policy expert, mentor at the Women in GovTech Challenge

🔹 Amina Ramallan — cybersecurity and internet governance professional, participant of the Women in GovTech Challenge

This is Code the State. Powered by Kitsoft, the team behind Liquio, and produced with the support of the ITU.

In this episode, Tuntufye Mwamlimina Ntaukira, Digital Governance Analyst at United Nations Development Programme (Malawi), and Oleksandr Iefremov, CEO of Kitsoft, discuss how digital public services are built in practice — from idea to prototype and real-world impact — what happens behind the scenes of the Women in GovTech Challenge, why strong GovTech solutions often fail, and what it actually takes to turn ideas into working systems.

This is Code the State. Powered by Kitsoft, the team behind Liquio, and produced with the support of the ITU.

What separates countries that succeed in digital government transformation from those that don't?

In this episode, Oleksandr Iefremov, CEO of Kitsoft, and Daniel Korski — one of the key pioneers of GovTech in Europe, former advisor to UK Prime Minister David Cameron discuss how Diia built trust in a country where trust in government has never been high, why Europe is divided between vanguards and laggards, and what it really takes to drive change.

"If the Ukrainians can do this at war, what can you do at peace?"

This is Code the State. Powered by Kitsoft, the team behind Liquio, and produced with the support of the ITU.