For Ukraine’s tech startups, the last two years have been anything but business as usual.
Despite drone strikes and a battered war-time economy, cities like Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa remain home to a thriving tech ecosystem.
As the war grinds on, a number of Ukraine’s entrepreneurs have been fighting their own battle with Russia.
Yet their fight has not just been to preserve their country’s territory – but also its identity.
MailOnline spoke with the CEOs and founders of some of these startups to learn how they have been using technology to fight the war for Ukrainian culture.
Ukrainian startups like the team at Respeecher, pictured here in their Kyiv office, have been finding ways to fight back against Russia and defend Ukraine’s cultural heritage
Respeecher
Respeecher is an Emmy Award-winning voice synthesis company based in Kyiv.
Before the outbreak of the war, it gained international renown for its work recreating the voice of a young Luke Hamill for his return as Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian.
Even as the missiles fell on Kyiv, the company continued to work on major Hollywood projects from their bomb shelters.
Alex Serdiuk, Respeecher CEO and co-founder, told MailOnline that the war has given him and the company a new drive.
‘You can adapt to most things, but missile attacks like the one we experienced today in Kyiv [January 2nd, 2024] are something you will never get used to,’ he said.
‘Like all Ukrainian businesses and startups, this war taught us what being resilient really means.
‘Building a startup is never easy, but probably, it would be way easier if Russia didn’t attack our cities with missiles or Shahid drones regularly.’
Alex Serdiuk, Respeecher CEO and co-founder, told MailOnline that the war has given him and the company a new drive
In the nearly 700 days since Russia’s invasion, Alex has also been looking for ways to use his company’s AI tools to keep Ukrainian culture in the spotlight.
This war taught us what being resilient really means.
This led to the launch of the ‘Share UA voices’ initiative which uses AI to transform celebritys’ messages of support into Ukrainian.
So far Resepeecher has enabled big names like Bear Grylls, Maye Musk, and Abby Savage to speak Ukrainian in their own voices.
‘Ukrainian language has been a target for Russian filthy attacks for centuries, language is the blood of a culture,’ says Alex.
‘The more streamlined the content creation process is, the more creative tools one has to create content – the stronger the culture through language.’
Respeecher is also training a neural network to recognise the Crimean Tatar language so that native speakers can use voice assistants like Siri or Alexa.
Respeecher gained international renown for using AI to digitally de-age Mark Hamill’s voice for his role in The Mandalorian, they are now using this same technology to preserver the Crimean Tatar language and promote the Ukrainian war effort
Since Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, the Crimean Tatar people have faced repression and serious violations of their human rights.
A report from the European Commissioner for Human Rights published last year emphasized the importance of preserving the Crimean Tatar language.
However, despite everything, Alex says he isn’t too worried about Ukraine’s culture.
‘Ukraine is a strong country, our people are tremendously resilient,’ Alex says.
‘And we all learned how the culture is important. Learned with deaths, blood and many other awful things Russia brought here. Nothing bad will happen with the culture, it’s on the rise anyway.’
balbek bureau
The UN estimates that nearly 1.5 million homes have been completely destroyed in Ukraine.
The World Bank estimates that the total cost of damage to homes in the country exceeded $135 billion (£105.9bn) as of March last year.
But even as Russian strikes continue to fall on homes across the country, the architects at balbek bureau are already laying plans for the country’s reconstruction.
Slava Balbek, co-founder of balbek bureau, told MailOnline: ‘The war has also influenced our self-perception: we see value in our work as architects more now than ever.
‘The path between generating an idea and implementing is way shorter than it used to be. Since living to see another day is now a privilege, we no longer let ourselves be slowed down by second thoughts.’
Slava Balbek, founder of balbek bureau, says that the war has made him see his work as an architect preserving Ukraine’s distinctive styles as more important
Since living to see another day is now a privilege, we no longer let ourselves be slowed down by second thoughts.
When the war began, local projects were suspended and their employees were scattered across eight countries from Poland to the US.
‘Russia’s unjustified invasion has turned our lives upside down,’ says Slava.
‘Some of our teammates joined the army, others started volunteering, many had to flee their homes.’
Yet, as commercial work evaporated in those early days of the conflict, Slava and his co-founder Borys Dorogov shifted towards social projects to help the country.
The first was a project called ‘RE:Ukraine Housing’ which aimed to build ‘a system of dignified temporary accommodation for displaced people.’
Slava says: ‘Over the last two years, our team has learned to stay productive despite missile and drone attacks, blackouts and cell connection outages.
‘As a business, the bureau has mastered juggling commercial and social. Moreover, this war-work-life balance is what keeps us going no matter what.’
Borys Dogrov, co-founder of balbek bureau, and his team have created a digital tool to preserve the unique architecture of Ukrainian villages that risk being destroyed by the war
But now Slava and Borys are turning to technology to help preserve Ukraine’s cultural heritage.
Borys told MailOnline: ‘Ukrainian architecture, with its impressive regional diversity, has been endangered long before the invasion.
‘For centuries, it used to be a subject to Russian imperialism; ever since Ukraine regained its independence, it has often been replaced with modern-day serial projects, lacking individuality and cultural value.’
With their distinctive roofs, verandas, and windows, the look of a Ukrainian village is something that has been preserved through years of social upheaval.
They now fear that as Ukraine begins to rebuild, villages will be filled with identical social housing projects and Russia will have wiped away a core part of Ukrainian heritage.
The RE:Ukrainian Villages tool lets people create plans for new homes that are appropriate to their region using a selection of features recorded by balbek bureau
The tool even generates plans for new homes, like this one here, which allows people to rebuild their homes that have been destroyed by the war with Russia
balbek bureau’s latest initiative, RE:Ukrainian Villages, has created a digital archive of regional architectural styles.
Users can easily create a model of a house based on their local area and even generate a manual on how to build the house with little to no professional help.
The tool features 211,680,000 unique house configurations for the Kyiv region alone.
Borys and Slava hope that this tool will not only preserve a record of Ukraine’s villages but also act as a guide for the next generation of architects.
‘Unfortunately, our project will not change the war’s course, but it can definitely contribute to cultural resistance,’ says Borys.
He adds: ‘The more people start embracing our heritage, the more united we will stand in the face of Russia’s propaganda.’
Ukrainian village houses have distinctive regional features like this home in the Chernehiv region with its bright colours and distinctive decorations. Slava and Borys worry that these styles may be lost in the post-war reconstruction
PetCube
For some startups, fighting against Russia and running a business are one and the same goal.
‘Armies win battles, but economy wins wars’ says Andriy Klen CEO of Petcube, a maker of digital pet cameras, told MailOnline.
‘Our work is larger than us,’ Andriy said.
‘It’s about giving Petcubers a purpose, keeping them sane, supporting the Ukrainian economy, and advocating for our country on all fronts.
‘Petcube devices don’t have a military purpose, but the Petcube team does.
‘And our contributions are rather practical; it’s our people serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and our resources to provide needed supplies and equipment for the defenders.’
Andriy says his team are proud of their Ukrainian heritage and have been putting ‘Easter eggs’ of Ukrainian culture into their products to fight back against cultural appropriation
Andriy, alongside Petcube co-founder Yaroslav Azhnyuk, also launched an initiative called Spend with Ukraine (SWU).
Armies win battles, but economy wins wars.
The goal is to boost the Ukrainian economy by bringing its products to consumers on a global platform.
According to some estimates, the war has set back Ukraine’s economy by 15 years and plunged an additional 7.1 million people into poverty.
However, the Ukrainian economy is now showing some tentative signs of recovery.
While Ukraine’s economy contracted by almost 30 per cent in 2022, a more stable energy grid and foreign investment have driven growth predictions for 2024 up to three to five per cent.
‘By choosing to spend with Ukraine, consumers worldwide can transform their daily purchases into a force for good standing in solidarity with the people of Ukraine,’ Andriy says.
He adds: ‘SWU actively combats cultural appropriation by spotlighting these unique Ukrainian-rooted brands worldwide.’
Petcube says that its cameras, which are designed for owners to check in on their pets, don’t have a military purpose but that the company can fight Russia by building Ukraine’s economy
The Petcube 360 (left) is a reference to Russian cultural appropriation of the Ukrainian artist Kazimir Malevich and his painting Black Circle (right)
Petcube’s products themselves might not be weapons but its founders say that their work has become about finding new ways to fight back.
For example, Andriy says that Petcube has been planting ‘Easter eggs’ of references to Ukrainian culture into its products.
The trailer for the new camera includes music by Mykola Lysenko, considered the Father of Ukrainian Music.
And even the design of its latest invention is a direct reference to Ukrainian culture as it is modelled after the art of Kazymyr Malevych.
Born to Polish parents in Kyiv in 1879 while Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire, Malevych has widely been considered Russian.
In fact, Malevych’s Wikipedia page still states that he was a Russian artist born in Kiyv.
But as the war broke out, galleries around the world, such as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, have begun to reclassify Malevych as Ukrainian.
Adriyi says: ‘His work was wrongfully appropriated by Russians, so our job is to shed light on the artist’s true origin and identification.
‘Ukrainian culture is great enough to survive without us. Now, it’s having its moment we are just happy to contribute.’
This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk
