Every Meter of War Online: How DeepState Tracks Frontline Activity
DeepState is an open-source interactive map of military operations in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Since it came into being in 2022, DeepState has provided the most accurate information about frontline movements in the war for most of the world’s media.
From the first day of full-scale hostilities, the project’s analysts have depicted the movement of the contact line with surgical precision, continually updating the map on a minute-to-minute, meter-by-meter basis. Roman Pohorilyi, a founder, speaks out about how the project works.
Kyiv Post: How did DeepState come about? How did this happen, and how does it work?
Roman Pohorily: Even before the full-scale invasion [on Feb. 24, 2022], we started tracking the movement of Russian troops in a pre-frontline zone. To be honest, there are similar projects in the world – maps that follow some conflicts – but if we’re talking about such a big war as the Russo-Ukrainian one, we have a lot of contacts with the military, we constantly communicate with them. So I can say frankly and with pride that we are the most accurate map of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Other similar projects working in other countries, including overseas, take data from open sources and news – there’s not even a trace of accuracy there.
How is information collected? How do you verify each position and building?
There are public sources, and there are non-public ones – that’s one. Second, many thanks to OSINT: the guys verified the information as best they could, especially at the beginning of the war, when there was a lot of movement. As our reputation and responsibility grew, we gained a lot of sources among the military – often the soldiers write to us themselves if there are clarifications, inaccuracies, or changes in the situation. Now, these direct clarifications from the military are gradually replacing OSINT, because there is footage online that is outdated, inaccurate, or simply propaganda. There are also non-public sources that I can’t disclose.
For example. Here is a tree line, the same in appearance as another. How do you check who controls it?
We explain the development of the situation on our channel. If it’s about the Sumy region, we stay in touch with the military on the ground. There was a good example with the village of Basivka, when they [the enemy] first infiltrated between Zhuravka and Novenke through the forest belt, then our guys caught them on ATVs and pushed them into Basivka. And when they entered the borders of the settlement, on the outskirts, they claimed they had taken the village – but by staying in touch with the [Ukrainian] marines in Basivka, we published that this was not the case.
The situation changes dynamically, but we try to monitor it every day. Right now, the situation is getting worse – some locations are questionable. We’re simultaneously communicating with five units, many of them military, and each gives a completely different description of the situation. We have to constantly conduct cross-checks.
So information from one source, even if it’s from the front, is not always correct?
Absolutely! Everyone explains things their own way. Some want the information to be shown in a particular way, some see only their sector and don’t know what’s happening with neighboring units. Sometimes a unit is holding positions and doesn’t know that there are no more allies nearby – they’ve been knocked out – but the unit isn’t aware of that. We have many sources in every sector of the front, and we work non-stop.
How many people do you need for such a job?
We have more than 100 people, and we work continuously. This includes OSINT analysts, Telegram managers, volunteers, legal experts, software developers – and this whole machine works without pause.
Are you being copied? Have you tried to take legal action in such cases?
Constantly. Sometimes they stay up at night just to follow our updates and copy them. There was a notable case when we had a technical glitch – the mouse moved, the red zone expanded – and suddenly there were screams: “Oooh, the Muscovites are advancing!” Some even made up stories to explain it! It was hilarious… it didn’t reflect any real situation – it was just some tree line – but it’s a revealing case.
Can the Russians be a source for you? If so, then when?
Muscovites are never a source for us. They lie a lot. They claim to have taken settlements that haven’t been confirmed, often raise their flag on the outskirts and declare the place captured, or they announce a settlement has been taken before they even begin to storm it – just to later throw huge resources into meat assaults. A vivid example is the village of Bahatyr in the Donetsk region, which they “took” several times in advance, but still had to throw huge amounts of manpower at to actually capture.
There are many such cases, but we don’t pay attention to them, because – what are Muscovites and their sources, really?
Source: Sergii Kostezh