How online sleuths are holding Russia to account over Ukraine in real time

Analysts and amateurs alike are using open-source intelligence (OSINT) techniques to document Russia’s invasion and debunk Kremlin propaganda in unprecedented fashion, reports Rory Sullivan

Iryna Holoshchapova, a Ukrainian refugee who fled the embattled city of Mykolaiv to Medyka in Poland, shows a video on her smartphone of an apartment block in Mykolaiv on fire following a Russian attack, 9 March 2022 (Getty Images)

Unlike most previous conflicts, Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is being closely watched and monitored in almost real time, thanks to an army of online sleuths.

Since Russia launched its invasion three weeks ago, streams of high-resolution photographs, videos and satellite imagery have poured out of Ukraine, showing burned-out tanks, shelled apartment blocks and missile attacks.

They document the lack of Russian progress as well as the destruction and upending of civilian lives.