Serhii Morhunov Presented Vinnytsia's Experience at the Smart City Expo World Congress

From 4 to 6 November 2025, Barcelona hosted the Smart City Expo World Congress 2025, the world's largest forum dedicated to the development of urban ecosystems, innovation in municipal management, sustainable development and the integration of digital solutions. The event brought together city leaders, international experts, business representatives, financial institutions and donor organisations to discuss modern technologies and solutions that make city life more comfortable, convenient and safe for people. At the invitation of Deloitte, a delegation from Vinnytsia, led by Vinnytsia Mayor Serhii Morhunov, took part in the event.

‘Together with Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, we were among the Ukrainian representatives invited to present the experience of our cities. I had the opportunity to present our achievements. I talked about decisions that became relevant in the context of war, such as the automatic door opening system in shelters and the Safe City project,’ said Serhii Morhunov.

The event discussed seven key topics related to the development of modern cities:

• Laying the foundation for a ‘smart city’ through the use of innovative technologies.

• Energy efficiency in cities, clean energy, adaptation to climate change, ecosystems.

• Intelligent transport, logistics, integrated solutions for citizen mobility.

• Digital governance, innovative urban economies, citizen participation.

• How to make cities comfortable and fair for all residents.

• Smart, sustainable urban infrastructure, building the future.

• Technologies and solutions related to water resources, coastal areas, oceans.

Serhii Morhunov also joined the panel discussion ‘Smart Solutions for Ukrainian Cities: Sustainability, Innovation, Best Practices,’ which focused on digital transformation in wartime. During his speech, he emphasised that new technologies are important tools, but real change is brought about by people who make cities sustainable, smart and ready for any challenges.

'The war in Ukraine has been ongoing since 2014, and Vinnytsia began considering how to respond to security challenges at that time. Subsequently, there was the COVID-19 pandemic and blackouts – each crisis period prompted us to seek technological solutions. We introduced electronic tickets for transport, digital medicine, and online education, and these services proved their effectiveness during the war. Thanks to the energy management system and smart lighting, the city continues to function even in difficult conditions. In 2018, the Situation Centre was launched, bringing together the police, the State Emergency Service, the Municipal Guard and municipal services – today it is the foundation of community safety. We are modernising video surveillance, introducing artificial intelligence, and have our own fibre-optic network and automatic shelter opening system – the first in Ukraine. At the same time, we are developing the Crystal Innovation and Technology Park, which houses relocated companies, particularly in the IT sector, and various start-ups, and we are installing energy-independent solar panels with our French partners. The next step is to create a digital twin of the city and a municipal cloud that will unite more than 200 structures and 10,000 users, ensuring the cyber resilience and digital autonomy of Vinnytsia. We are also working on modernising the transport system together with our German partners from the sister city of Karlsruhe, installing autonomous traffic lights and preparing for the introduction of 5G,' said Serhii Morhunov.

To further develop the digitalisation of Vinnytsia, Serhii Morhunov called for cooperation between international financial, educational, scientific, and technological partners in the fields of cyber security, analytics, 5G, and data management.