Ukraine Elections 2026: Wargame
Developed with Mark Galeotti
Ukraine at a crossroads
Two candidates with different visions.
Ukraine 2026 Elections is a public wargame co-created by Conducttr and author & consultant, Mark Galeotti. Six weeks before polling day, four teams compete for the information domain to determine Ukraine’s future.
Scenario
Ukraine: A Nation at a Crossroads is set six weeks before the country’s first post-war election. The nation is resilient but divided—torn between pro-Europe ambitions and calls for peace with Russia. Four key groups—Urbans, Rurals, War-Affected, and Easterns—face clashing narratives and foreign influence. As two candidates rise, one pro-West and one pro-de-escalation, Ukraine’s future will be shaped not just by votes, but by media, rumours, and memory.
Exercise
Four teams competed for dominance of the information environment: Ukrainian Government, Pro-EU Candidate - Andriy Dovhan, Pragmatic Candidate - Natalia Levchenko and the Russian Government. While the two candidates sought an election win, the Ukraine government’s goal was a stable democracy while Russia wanted a fractured trust, weakened institutions and divided allies.
The game lasted 60 mins.
The game lasted 60 mins.
Environment
Participants pre-registered and joined a public videoconference with a short intro before anonymously logging in and choosing a team.
The information environment and human terrain were simulated by Conducttr, with in-house AI tools providing support.
Teams used team-based Log and Msngr channels for internal collaboration. Only team leads could post officially, but players could act freely otherwise. Zoom breakout rooms enabled real-time coordination. Anonymity was preserved unless players edited their profiles.
The information environment and human terrain were simulated by Conducttr, with in-house AI tools providing support.
Teams used team-based Log and Msngr channels for internal collaboration. Only team leads could post officially, but players could act freely otherwise. Zoom breakout rooms enabled real-time coordination. Anonymity was preserved unless players edited their profiles.
Artificial Intelligence for StratCom Exercising
Conducttr further strengthened its leadership in AI-driven information operations exercises with a suite of innovative tools.
Artificial intelligence was foundational to the experience, supporting everything from tracking significant events and impersonating key actors to analysing voting intentions, player feedback, and generating content. This comprehensive use of AI enabled a more dynamic, responsive, and realistic simulation environment.
Download the post-exercise report for further details.
Artificial intelligence was foundational to the experience, supporting everything from tracking significant events and impersonating key actors to analysing voting intentions, player feedback, and generating content. This comprehensive use of AI enabled a more dynamic, responsive, and realistic simulation environment.
Download the post-exercise report for further details.
AI-powered Actors
18 influential actors were created and made available in the information environment and modelled with AI.
Players were encouraged to reach out to these actors to further their aims.
Our AI Actors were given beliefs, goals, knowledge and a voice and communicated via human role-players authentically in tone and consistent with their personality.
Players were encouraged to reach out to these actors to further their aims.
Our AI Actors were given beliefs, goals, knowledge and a voice and communicated via human role-players authentically in tone and consistent with their personality.
AI-powered Significant Activity Tracking
Key developments in the wargame were analysed by AI to determine which political future for Ukraine was most likely.
AI-powered Voting Intentions
Player feedback was provided in the form of simulated public polls of voting intentions among four target audiences.
Based on detected significant activity, the AI generated polling data and this was published in-game via a fictional polling company.
Additional depth and analysis was provided by an additional simulated political risk consultancy.
Based on detected significant activity, the AI generated polling data and this was published in-game via a fictional polling company.
Additional depth and analysis was provided by an additional simulated political risk consultancy.
Road to Crisis
Post-wargame Report
Behind the Scenes Video