Ukraine’s National Cyber Team Debuts at the European Cybersecurity Challenge 2025

From October 6 to 9, Warsaw hosted the European Cybersecurity Challenge (ECSC) — the largest continental tournament in cybersecurity, bringing together young talents from across Europe. This year, over 400 participants from 39 countries took part — and for the first time ever, Ukraine’s National Cyber Team joined the competition.

“It was a great honor to represent Ukraine at this level for the first time. The tournament has been held for 11 years, and we truly felt part of the European cybersecurity community. The experience we gained is invaluable — now we know exactly which direction to move next,” said Pavlo Lovyhin, Team Captain of Ukraine’s National Cyber Team.

The Ukrainian team was formed based on the results of the National Championship in the Capture the Flag (CTF) discipline — a key format of technological sport. Despite being newcomers, the team made a confident debut, finishing 31st among Europe’s strongest cyber squads. The top three positions went to Italy, Denmark, and Germany respectively.

For Ukraine’s team, this tournament became a high-level training camp, offering not only a chance to compete against Europe’s best but also to gain a firsthand understanding of how such events are organized — both technically and operationally.

“We see this participation primarily as a powerful learning opportunity. We observed how European tournaments function, met teams from other countries, and learned about their training methods. This experience will help us develop our own initiatives and organize Ukrainian competitions to international standards,”
said Vitalii Lavrov, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine.

Challenges That Unite

The competition followed the Capture the Flag (CTF) format, where participants tackled tasks in web security, cryptography, digital forensics, reverse engineering, network analysis, and applied security. Each stage required teamwork, resilience, and creative problem-solving.

The team’s preparation combined both online and offline formats: Jeopardy-style tasks were solved on Ukraine’s cyber range Cyber Range UA, while attack/defense challenges took place at SET University and on the ECSC2025 platform.

According to Kyrylo Tkachov, Head Coach of Ukraine’s National Cyber Team, the collaboration within the team was exceptional:

“We already see the direction we need to move in. We’ll keep improving our strategies and tactics so that each next international performance of Team Ukraine is stronger. It’s a long and meticulous process — but this is exactly how future victories begin.”

Ukraine’s Integration into the European Cybersecurity Community

The debut of Ukraine’s National Cyber Team at ECSC marked a significant milestone in the country’s integration into the European cybersecurity ecosystem. Despite wartime challenges, Ukrainian youth continue to demonstrate strong technical expertise, a hunger for knowledge, and readiness to adopt international best practices.

“We didn’t just take part — we laid the foundation for future international cooperation in technological sport and cybersecurity. Ukraine has the potential not only to compete but also to host such tournaments,”
emphasized Yevhen Vladimirov, Head of the National Cyber Sports Committee of Ukraine.

Ukraine Among the Candidates to Host ECSC 2026

During the Warsaw event, a meeting of national team representatives and organizers took place — where Ukraine officially submitted its bid to host the European Cybersecurity Challenge 2026. This is an ambitious step for the Ukrainian cybersecurity community and for the country as a whole.

Organizing such a tournament requires extensive coordination and careful risk management, yet both the ECSC Executive Committee and ENISA representatives expressed support for Ukraine’s initiative.

United Support: State, Business, and Community

Ukraine’s National Cyber Team competed at the ECSC under the auspices of the Ukrainian Federation of Technological Sports, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine, and the National Cybersecurity Coordination Center under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

This was made possible through the support of EU4DigitalUA, a project financed by the European Union and implemented by FIAP, together with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the SBU’s Department of Counterintelligence Protection of State Interests in the Field of Information Security, and the Special Operations Center “A”.

Additional support was provided by partners of the Ukrainian National CTF Championship 2025: the Ukrainian Gunmakers Association, Cyber Unit Technologies, SET University, the Institute for Cyberwarfare Studies, Sheriff, Raiffeisen Bank, Lenovo, WhiteBit, iIT Distribution, Vyriy, DC8044 — Ukraine’s largest cyber community, Sport Business Media, Scroll, and Speka.