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15 September 2023

The Washington Whiz Kids Mapping the War in Ukraine

Amy Mackinnon

In the 560 days since Russia launched its full-scale assault on Ukraine, daily reports produced by the Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War have become some of the most widely cited authorities on the state of the conflict. ISW’s maps, which are updated daily to reflect needlepoint changes on the front line, have been used by the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, the Washington Post, and CNN in recent months.

Detailed battlefield updates were once the sole preserve of militaries, intelligence agencies, and embedded journalists. ISW’s Ukraine updates underscore how open-source intelligence has drastically changed public understanding of war. The team’s analysts, many of whom were not yet out of high school when Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, methodically mine the internet on a daily basis to build a near real time picture of the war’s progress which has been used by the media, governments, and humanitarian agencies in understanding the war’s progress.

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