Competitive Advantage in the Russo-Ukrainian War: Ukraine’s Technological Potential Against a Kremlin Goliath

This study explains the technological context and miscalculations that led to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and explores how public opinion shaped the technological factors that are helping Ukraine gain and maintain a competitive advantage. NATO overestimated Russia in information technology and did not account for collective hybrid efforts outside of Ukraine, emboldening Russia to push physical and ethical boundaries. However, Ukrainian forces and benefactors have been using information technology more efficiently than Russia, among other enablers, to gain a competitive advantage over its seemingly larger and more powerful adversary. Research must be conducted to understand the factors of Russia’s shortfalls, properly integrate corporations using a common language, and establish rules of engagement among civilian and military agencies in the cyber domain. History and case study methodologies were used for this research. Russia’s historical identity and impunity emboldened the Kremlin to invade Ukraine, underestimating the impact technological benefactors would have on Ukraine as a formidable competitor under Porter’s five forces model. This conflict exposes implications for industry integration to cyber defense exercises (CDX). This research is significant because it promotes a common language and framework to integrate private organizations in applying collaborative solutions and boundaries in a domain without borders and limited regulation.