In December 2025, a specialized tailored exercise entitled “Cyber interference in elections: response, investigation, forensics and interagency cooperation” was held to strengthen the capacity of the Ukrainian national authorities concerned in countering cyber threats and disinformation in electoral processes. Organised with the support of the Council of Europe* in cooperation with the Central Election Commission of Ukraine, the activity combined a cyber exercise on detecting and investigating election-related cybercrime and cybersecurity incidents together with a workshop on crisis communications focused on communication response to cyber interference and disinformation in elections.
The exercise brought together representatives of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine, alongside officials from national authorities responsible for election security, cybersecurity, cybercrime investigations, and information security.
During the cyber exercise, the participants enhanced their knowledge and skills on handling election-related cybercrime and cybersecurity incidents, focusing on the analysis of e-evidence, digital forensics, detecting criminal activity, and relevant interagency coordination. The accompanying cybersecurity crisis communication workshop strengthened participants’ knowledge and skills in strategies and tactics for preventing and mitigating the impact of disinformation, as well as in interagency coordination mechanisms to counter disinformation campaigns and tools for communication response to cyber threats and incidents that could undermine public trust in electoral processes.
The integrated and holistic format of the exercise helped strengthen the capacity of professional communities and reinforced cooperation among institutions responsible for ensuring the security and integrity of the electoral process in Ukraine.
*The activity was organised within the framework and with the support of the Council of Europe project on “Supporting democratic post-war elections in Ukraine – Phase II”, implemented by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe under the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” 2023 – 2026, in cooperation with CyberEast+, a joint European Union and Council of Europe, implemented by the Cybercrime Programme Office of the Council of Europe.
Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention)
