Ukraine selects Google’s Gemma as the base for a national large language model to build an independent AI system

Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and mobile operator Kyivstar have chosen Google’s open‑weight Gemma framework as the foundation for a national large language model, part of a strategy to reduce reliance on foreign AI services like ChatGPT and to avoid Chinese models such as DeepSeek and Qwen. The system—trained first on Google infrastructure before moving to Ukrainian data centres—will support multiple local languages and dialects and is intended to power government services and Kyivstar products, strengthening digital sovereignty and supporting both civilian and military applications.