Ukraine’s battlefield data is a strategic state asset that should not be used for free by Western technology companies. Denys Shtilerman, chief designer and co-owner of Fire Point, called for a review of cooperation with U.S. company Palantir following the announcement of its partnership with Nebius.
This was stated by Fire Point chief designer and co-owner Denys Shtilerman on X.
According to him, Ukraine currently possesses one of the world’s most valuable datasets on modern warfare. It includes millions of hours of drone footage, data on air defense operations, target recognition, the use of unmanned systems, sensors and electronic warfare systems.
Shtilerman stressed that this data has enormous strategic and commercial value and should not be handed over as if it were worth nothing.
He noted that Palantir is already deeply integrated into work involving Ukrainian battlefield data and, together with government institutions, participates in Brave1 Dataroom, where artificial intelligence models are trained on real-world data obtained under combat conditions.
According to Shtilerman, on September 8 Palantir announced a strategic partnership with Nebius and named it its preferred sovereign AI infrastructure partner.
Nebius Group is the former Yandex N.V., the Dutch parent company of Russia’s Yandex, which was renamed after the sale of its Russian assets. The company is headed by Yandex co-founder Arkady Volozh.
Shtilerman recalled that Volozh was placed under European Union sanctions in 2022. According to him, the sanctions-related concerns were linked, among other things, to Yandex’s role in promoting Russian state narratives, reducing the visibility of content critical of the Kremlin and censoring information about the war against Ukraine.
The Fire Point co-owner said it was unacceptable for a company with such origins and leadership to become Palantir’s strategic partner in AI infrastructure while Palantir is working with Ukrainian battlefield data.
“We must either receive a proportionate benefit from them or end the cooperation. Our battlefield data is not free raw material for Western technology corporations. It is a strategic state asset. Ukraine paid for it in blood,” Shtilerman said.
He stressed that Ukraine should not give away, without proper control, data that could be critical to the development of military technologies and artificial intelligence.
