New Partnership for Advancing Cybersecurity in Ukraine
The Federation of Military Technology Sports of Ukraine has entered into a partnership with SET University to enhance cybersecurity through educational initiatives, Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions, and training specialists for international contests.
Arthur Buligin, President of the Federation, emphasized that military technology sports are essential in today's context. Ukraine has become the first country to officially recognize CTF as a sport and is actively creating a national system for training esports athletes. Together with governmental and technical partners, the Federation is developing a new infrastructure for cyber resilience through sports, education, and real challenges.
In 2025, CTF was officially recognized as a sports discipline in Ukraine, marking a global first. Following this, the first official regional competitions took place on July 26-27, where finalists were already chosen.
The competitions were held at the national cyber polygon Unit Range, with technical support from Cyber Unit Technologies. Participants tackled challenges in categories such as Web, Crypto, Reverse, PWN, OSINT, and Forensics, including a special author challenge from Cyber Lab.
As part of the regional cybersecurity championships, the best teams in each region were identified. In Vinnytsia, the Samurai team claimed victory, with Cyber Support taking second place, and RCE Ninjas finishing third. In the Rivne region, the 0xRivne team won first place, NUWM secured silver, and 404TEAM took bronze. In Mykolaiv, BARRACUDA led, followed by Ghost in the Shellcode in second, and 0xMK UA in third.
These teams will represent their regions in the final of the Ukrainian Cybersecurity Championship in September 2025.
Additionally, on July 26-27, the open tournament CYBER UNIT UNITED was held, which gained official status as a stage of national selection. The dcua team won the competition, ByteMe took second, and dttua came in third. Besides the winners, additional qualification for the finals of the Ukrainian Championship was also granted to the teams: DNAcademy, Gongo, Exploit, Snufkink, XYZ.NXT, 0xSum, and LocalHost.
Regional competition winners will advance to the finals of the Cyber Championship of Ukraine, and their champions will form the basis of the national team, representing Ukraine at the European Cybersecurity Challenge 2025 in Poland. Moreover, finalists will receive grants for a master's degree in cybersecurity at SET University.
