Schoolchildren from Ukraine’s frontline Donetsk region won three top global awards at an international young inventors competition
Three students from Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, and Vuhledar have been named Global Prize laureates by Dassault Systèmes, one of the world's most prestigious international awards for young inventors. Competing against more than 50,000 participants from around the globe, the Ukrainian students won three of the five top global awards.
The young inventors developed their projects while living through air raid alerts, power outages, and the constant threat of shelling. Each of their inventions is designed to solve real-world problems and help save lives.
The winners are participants in the Ukraine Invention Convention (UKRIC), Ukraine’s first national competition for young inventors, created in partnership with the American Next Minds program (Connecticut Invention Convention). Its mission is to help Ukrainian students transform their ideas into real inventions and showcase them on the international stage.
Stepan Zots from Kramatorsk received a Global Prize for his Safety Bracelet —a wearable device that alerts people with hearing impairments to air raid warnings through vibration and allows them to send an SOS signal with a single press.
Yaroslava Hondar from Sloviansk was awarded a Global Prize for developing a wind-powered turbine that restores water circulation and oxygenates silted bodies of water without requiring a connection to the electrical grid.
“Every day I saw lakes that were simply dying,” Yaroslava said. “I realized I didn’t want to wait for an adult to fix the problem. It turned out that all it takes is the wind and a single idea to bring the water back to life.”
Mykyta Telychko from Vuhledar received a Global Prize for developing an AI-powered application that recognizes sign language. Inspired by a close family member with a hearing impairment, Mykyta taught himself to code an app capable of recognizing both Ukrainian and American Sign Language, even with a weak internet connection.
During their visit to the United States, the delegation also exchanged ideas with students at Berlin High School, visited Yale University, the Connecticut State Capitol, and the United Nations Headquarters. The students met with U.S. Congressman Joe Courtney, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont. Their stories were also featured on NBC and Fox News.
According to UKRIC founder Ben Kohenberger, Ukrainian children continue to demonstrate the power of their ideas to the world — even in the midst of war.
“These children are not waiting for the war to end before rebuilding their country,” he said. “They are inventing its future right now.”
In September 2026, UKRIC will open applications for a new cohort of students from the Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa regions. Beginning in October, around 500 participants will take part in a free, fully online program that guides them from an initial idea to a working prototype. The most outstanding participants—following in the footsteps of this year’s finalists — will go on to represent Ukraine in the United States. Registration is now open at www.ukric.org.
