- Ukraine’s Central Research Institute has unveiled Marichka, a closed neural network designed to cut brigade-level planning decisions from six to 12 hours to minutes
- The system calculates force ratios, estimates losses and models courses of action on an interactive map, but has so far only been tested on test data, with classified document integration still pending
- Marichka adds another layer to Ukraine’s battlefield planning technology stack: the country already has Delta for situational awareness and is working with Palantir on multiple levels
The Central Research Institute of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has presented Marichka, a closed neural network designed to compress the operational planning cycle at the brigade level and above from hours to minutes.
The system, still in testing, is built to collect and verify battlefield information, then calculate force ratios and estimate required resources and likely casualties, and present commanders with modeled options on an interactive map. Military standards currently allow a regimental or brigade commander six to 12 hours and about 20 documents to reach the same point.
It can also alert command posts of changes in the operational situation as new information becomes available. Col. Yurii Kliat, who heads the institute, was explicit about where authority stops, telling the briefing that the final decision remains with the commander.
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A battlefield replacement for Palantir
Palantir has been embedded in Ukrainian operations since shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, and it remains a mainstay in that theater, with a scale that dwarfs what Marichka is attempting.
Marichka is still an important step. If it works as described, it would give Ukraine supreme control over part of the reasoning layer that currently sits with a foreign vendor, although Palantir’s pipeline remains the more established presence in the country’s software-driven war effort.
According to Colonel Yurii Kliat, head of the Central Research Institute of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Marichka centrally collects battlefield information, automatically calculates the balance of forces and combat potentials, and estimates required resources and probable losses.
The intent is to let brigade and regimental commanders make an informed decision in minutes, measured against a doctrinal standard that currently allows six to 12 hours and about 20 documents.
Ukraine already has the system that best fits the description of a homegrown Palantir: Delta, which has been providing situational awareness across the defense forces since 2022. Marichka is a new layer proposed on top of a stack that already includes Delta, Palantir’s platforms for fusion and analysis, and, starting this year, a dedicated Defense AI Center. Whether it will integrate with Delta or run separately has not been revealed, and is arguably the most important open question about the program.
Brigadier General Andrii Lebedenko told the Drone Autonomy 2026 conference in May that the armed forces had already begun integrating AI agents into command-and-control systems, placing Marichka in an existing effort rather than presenting it as a departure.
This is not Ukraine’s first attempt at an operational-level headquarters command system. The Dzvin was ordered from a contractor in 2016 and frozen in 2021 after the prototypes encountered disagreements over costs, timelines and product ownership.
Delta, developed in parallel rather than as a replacement, succeeded in part because it grew out of a volunteer reconnaissance unit solving an immediate problem on the battlefield, rather than from a procurement process.
Marichka comes from a research institute, which is a different lineage again, and the more difficult test will not be the neural network, but the bureaucracy surrounding the accreditation of classified data. That obstacle may be bolstered by the incumbent’s argument: Palantir has a proven record in theaters of war, and its early work in Ukraine, much of which it gave away for free, ensured a first-mover advantage that a domestic prototype would have to overcome.
Via United24Media
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