In 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers extended the DOT-Chain Defence digital defense procurement platform until October 24, 2027, and expanded it to new users: the State Border Guard Service, the National Police, and additional units of the National Guard. The decision was announced by Prime Minister Yulia Svirydenko and the Ministry of Internal Affairs press service.

What is DOT-Chain and why it's not just "another government registry"

The Defense Ministry's Defense Procurement Agency launched the platform in July 2025 as a marketplace: a unit commander logs into the system, selects a drone from the manufacturers' catalog, adds it to the cart — and sees their own budget balance in real time. No tender procedures in the classical sense, no paper approvals.

In seven months of operation, through DOT-Chain Defence, the Defense Forces received 500,000 assets — FPV drones, ground robotic systems, electronic warfare means, and interceptor drones. The total value of deliveries is 23.3 billion hryvnias. Founder of the Dzhavelin shock drone unit Andrii Onistat publicly called the platform's launch "the main achievement of Ukrainian defense industry in 2025."

In parallel, the Agency launched a financing mechanism for manufacturers — up to 70% advance payment depending on the speed of previous deliveries. This directly addresses a chronic problem: drone startups could not take large contracts because they lacked working capital for production.

Drone Line units already tested the expansion

Before the Cabinet's decision on the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the platform was opened for units of the "Drone Line" as part of the Unmanned Systems Forces under the command of Robert "Madyar" Brovdi. According to the Defense Ministry, in less than two weeks, the units ordered supplies worth 184.8 million hryvnias, with the first batches worth 40.8 million hryvnias already delivered. This answered a practical question: does the system scale beyond the traditional customer — the Armed Forces. The answer turned out to be positive.

What changes with the inclusion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

The National Police and State Border Guard Service are not combat units in the classical sense, but in the context of full-scale war, they receive and use unmanned aircraft and electronic warfare means. Previously, their purchases went through separate channels — with all the accompanying risks of lack of transparency. Connecting to a single digital system theoretically unifies pricing: manufacturers see consolidated demand, and the state sees consolidated prices.

"A contract is not an end goal, but only a beginning. The main task is to ensure that weapons reach the military on time in the quantities they need."

— Acting Head of the Defense Procurement Agency, Ukrainian Pravda

This caveat is not mere rhetoric. According to the Defense Procurement Agency, 92.4% of overdue obligations arose from contracts from previous years, not through DOT-Chain. But a precedent exists: a large number of concluded agreements does not yet guarantee actual deliveries on time.

Limits of digitalization

The platform solves the problem of transaction costs and market visibility. It does not solve the problem of production capacity, last-mile logistics, and the quality of products that enter the catalog. The mechanism for verifying manufacturers before inclusion in the marketplace is not publicly described — it is unknown whether there is independent audit of drone characteristics or only verification of the company's legal status.

If by 2027 the system is used by the law enforcement structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the real test will not be the volume of transactions, but whether a public registry of deliveries with data on contract fulfillment broken down by each unit will appear — or DOT-Chain will remain a faster but less transparent analog of the old system.