It has been six months since Russia invaded Ukraine, and we have documented, verified and investigated each step of the way as the Kremlin pursuits a senseless war on Ukraine.
Here is a thread on what we have seen so far.
#EyesOnRussia 🧵👇
On the outset, our Ukraine Witness archive currently sits at more than 11,000 entries of videos and photos, which are categorised, verified and analysed.
This archive is shared with justice, accountability, humanitarian and research groups to support them where it matters.
To build the database, we've been working with the open source community, which really shows the strength in collaboration to create the combined product of the database and map.
A big thanks to @bellingcat, @GeoConfirmed and to all of the analysts who helped along the way ✊
The database and map were initially created to monitor Russian troop buildups along Ukraine's borders. This is the type of content we were verifying back then, lots of military hardware being transported to the border.
We also started to document the creation and expansion of new bases and potential staging areas in multiple locations along the borders of Ukraine, like this one in Belarus.
Post February 24, we started documenting bombings of residential areas, shopping centres and more. Many of which are caught on camera, with clear evidence of indiscriminate shelling and bombing used in civilian areas like this one in Kharkiv.
Schools, hospitals, civilian infrastructure sites and places of worship were not spared by Russia's bombardments on Ukrainian cities. Every morning, more and more scenes like this school in Kharkiv appeared after waves of overnight bombings.
To see the scale of damage to civilian infrastructure, our map was updated to be filterable by category, so specific categories can be displayed. For example, here is all of the verified footage documenting civilian infrastructure damage in Ukraine maphub.net/Cen4infoRes/ru…
On a city-level breakdown, Mariupol was one of the worst affected places for civilian infrastructure damage, largely due to Russia's siege on the city.
We've been using @Maxar and @planet imagery to monitor that huge amount of destruction, from space.
That targeting of infrastructure warranted a deeper dive, where we found a clear systematic pattern of the targeting of educational facilities in Mariupol. info-res.org/post/the-syste…
During the documentation of where places were being targeted, our analysts also discovered the targeting of zoos and wildlife parks across Ukraine, which you can see in this report info-res.org/post/endangere…
The destruction of civilian infrastructure isn't the only thing we've seen from space over the past six months. Our analysts have also been monitoring the expansion and development of graves, specifically in occupied areas, like this one in Kherson.
This monitoring resulted in the identification of several gravesites in Ukraine, some of which had been expanded with thousands of new plots in occupied areas.
info-res.org/post/mass-grav…
Many of these events have faced denial and propaganda in the attempt to distort truths, and we have seen a number of ways this has been carried out, such as fake fact checking sites that attempted to debunk truths about Bucha.
info-res.org/post/disinform…
We've documented how the Russian Government uses children as tools of propaganda, to justify actions in Ukraine and shows how the Kremlin is using 'diseducation' tactics to influence next generations in Russian-occupied areas.
info-res.org/post/the-kreml…
As the conflict continues, so does the Kremlin influence campaigns, especially in Ukraine's occupied areas. Future work will involve a crucial effort to watch, document and expose Russia's attempts to control these areas and host 'referendums' info-res.org/post/briefing-…
Something we've also noticed and might see more of in the future is the rise of pro-Russian groups participating in propaganda and even on-ground events, such as this group that used open source techniques to provide the coordinates of a bombing in Kyiv. info-res.org/post/killer-co…
Through our diving into these details, and identifying the facts from the murky sea of state-backed narratives, we've been able to work with media to support them in their work - such as our proud collaboration with CNN on the bombings in Kharkiv edition.cnn.com/2022/05/12/wor…
That report identified exactly where cluster munitions were used in Kharkiv and how they were fired from within Russia's borders, but also identified the unit, and commander responsible for those bombings - the same commander that led the bombing campaign of Aleppo in 2016.
Equally, we've worked with @guardian on its coverage on mass graves in Ukraine theguardian.com/world/2022/jul…
Assisted @NewStatesman in its reporting on how the Kremlin is weaponising children for its propaganda. newstatesman.com/world/europe/u…
We've also shared part of our archive with @AP and @frontlinepbs to assist them in their War Crime Watch: Ukraine project, which has been doing some excellent coverage on the horrors of what has been seen in Ukraine pbs.org/wgbh/frontline…
Our work on debunking the Kremlin's propaganda and documenting information related to potential war crimes was covered in this @VICE documentary
Going forward, our investigations & collaborations continue to reveal grim details of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and we will remain doing this while there is still conflict and propaganda.
To stay up to date with our findings, visit our website info-res.org/latest/categor…
To stay up to date with the large volumes of footage that is still coming out of Ukraine, you can use our map (which will soon be redeveloped) to view verified and geolocated information from #EyesOnRussia maphub.net/Cen4infoRes/ru…
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