Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers appointed Oleksandr Zakusylo as Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation. In this position, he will be responsible for scaling digital reforms, developing state registries, and the open data sphere. This was announced by the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
Internal Promotion, Not External Appointment
Zakusylo is not a consultant or business outsider. He has been working in the Ministry of Digital Transformation team since 2020 and held the position of director of the electronic registry development directorate before his appointment. In other words, the state promoted a person who has been building the very infrastructure he will now manage at the level of deputy minister for five years.
Zakusylo's professional background is in information security and information processing automation; he received his education at the Igor Sikorsky National Technical University of Ukraine. He has over 20 years of experience in the field.
Why Registries Are Not a Technical, But Political Issue
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has closed a significant portion of public registries on security grounds. The problem is that this affected not only potential threats but also business, public control, and international partners.
«Open data is a mandatory condition for integration into Europe, obtaining further support, and the ability to implement reforms»
LIGA.net, open data market analysis
According to a Kyiv School of Economics study, Ukraine's open data market in 2020 amounted to up to 1.19% of GDP — approximately $1.85 billion. By 2025, it could have reached 2.08% of GDP under an optimistic scenario, had it not been for the war and access closures.
In 2025, the situation has not improved: according to Opendatabot's analysis, the availability of open datasets has continued to decline — even those that were accessible for years before the invasion and remain technically recoverable.
The European Integration Dimension
Transparency International Ukraine recorded that as of December 2025, only 55% of 270 "European integration" datasets that city councils were supposed to publish on data.gov.ua were actually published. Open data is not an abstraction but a specific condition for negotiation progress with the EU.
In parallel, the EU is financing Ukraine's digital transformation through the DT4UA project: harmonizing trust services with eIDAS requirements, electronic signature Diya.Pidpys for documents with European partners, and new integrated services. Registries are the backbone of this entire architecture.
What's Next
Zakusylo received his position at a time when his direction is under dual pressure: military restrictions are keeping registries closed, while European integration obligations require their gradual opening. These two vectors directly contradict each other.
If during 2025–2026, the Ministry of Digital Transformation does not propose a clear mechanism for phased restoration of access to public registries — with security criteria and a roadmap — Zakusylo's appointment will remain a personnel news item rather than a signal of a change in approach.
