[Skybird]

https://deepstatemap.live/en#6/49.438/32.053


[NZZ] A live map of the war in Ukraine receives more than a billion clicks - even the army uses it every day


Whether in Donbass or Kharkiv - the Deep State Map shows how the situation on the front is changing. Ukrainian patriots are behind the project. This is precisely why they are not only fighting false information from Moscow, but also from Kiev.


When Roman Pohorili and Ruslan Mikula first experimented with a map that depicts wars and conflicts live in 2021, they found it particularly interesting from a technical point of view. But then Russia invaded their home country: Their website DeepStateMap.live became a vital resource, for emergency services and even for the Ukrainian army. Anyone who wants to understand the situation in Donbass - or now that in Kharkiv - can hardly avoid this map. It now has well over a billion hits.


This makes the Deep State Map one of the most frequently used maps of the war in Ukraine. Pohorili and Mikula's team have created an intuitive user interface that presents the most important information almost at a glance: areas occupied by Moscow are pink or orange, liberated territories are green, contested territories are gray. If you want, you can overlay the topography and weather conditions, follow the course of the trenches or see which units are stationed where on the front line.


However, there is one restriction: the Deep State Map only shows Russian positions, not Ukrainian ones. Roman Pohorili does not want to provide the enemy with any useful information. In a Zoom interview with the NZZ, the 24-year-old admits that he is not an objective observer. "It's about our Ukraine, and we are fighting for victory." This means that he sometimes conceals ongoing operations by the Ukrainian military, even if his team knows about them.


However, there are changes every day. With a timeline function, you can follow front shifts back in time at will. Or at least almost: the first six weeks of the war were lost when the site was relaunched. It had initially worked on the basis of Google Maps, but the map was blocked - presumably because the American company got cold feet due to Russian hacker attacks and unresolved liability issues. The authors had to completely reprogram it.


However, Pohorili assures that the visible information is correct. There is no point in concealing Russian conquests and the associated shifts in the front line if this would jeopardize the evacuation of civilians, for example; after all, the Ukrainian Civil Protection is an official partner. The former lawyer is concerned with fundamental issues: "People should have no illusions. They have to face reality." Only if they understand the true situation on the front can they fight the Russians effectively.


Pohorili knows better than most in Ukraine that this situation is difficult. Over a hundred people provide information to the Deep State Map as volunteers. Many serve in the army themselves and are on the front line. The core team, whose size Pohorili does not want to name for security reasons, analyzes videos, news and images. It decides when to update the map.


According to Pohorili, images in particular can be easily checked using open source intelligence (Osint) methods. The analysts compare the location of buildings or streets with satellite images to ensure that the authors' information about the location of a video is correct.