UKRAINE MAP. The war in Ukraine is in its 26th day this Monday, March 21, 2022. The situation is still uncertain in kyiv while in the south, Mariupol is more than ever pounded by the Russian army…
[Mis à jour le 21 mars 2022 à 18h05] The war in Ukraine, launched by Vladimir Putin on February 24, turned into barely two weeks of invasion into a war of positions, Russian troops slowly advancing in a country in resistance. Several major cities have been taken or are besieged on several fronts across the country. On the 26th day of the invasion, the bombardments continued on a number of cities: kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol, Odessa, Mykolaiv… The Russians “did not make any major advances” on Sunday, but “are preparing to deploy more” artillery around the capital, underlined the Institute for the study of war (ISW), an American think-tank quoted later in this article. Late Sunday evening, a powerful strike destroyed the huge “Retroville” shopping center in the northwest of the city. The situation nevertheless remains uncertain and it is possible, according to several experts, that the Russians will not be able to take the capital for several weeks or even abandon this objective in the medium or long term.
In Mariupol, a large port city in the south, mainly Russian-speaking, the siege and the bombardments continued, putting the 350,000 inhabitants still stuck in the ruins of the city in a critical situation. Moscow asked the defenders of the city on Sunday to “lay down their arms”, but “there is no question of talking about surrender”, retorted the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister. The capture of Mariupol, a strategic target for the Russians, would allow the junction of forces from Crimea, in the south-west and troops from the independence territories of Donbass, but also from Russian positions further north and east.
News agency cards
Since the start of the conflict, maps have played a decisive role in understanding the Russian military operation and in monitoring the situation live. Several agencies provide the press with daily updated maps and charts. This is the case of Agence France Presse in France, but also of specialized services such as Visactu again, or Graphic News, an independent international agency entirely financed by media publishers. Most of these maps are updated at the end of the day (depending on the update dates, the maps presented below may date back to the day before).
The map of the Ukrainian site Liveuamap
One of the most valuable documents currently available online is the map drawn up by Liveuamap.coman independent Ukrainian platform that compiles and cross-checks information from media sources and social media and allows you to view, in real time or almost, the clashes and strikes that follow one another in the country.
Another interactive map published on MapHub allows to visualize the attacks of Russia and the acts of defense of Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict. The tool, which lists hundreds of events to date, is overseen by the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), an independent UK-based not-for-profit company that is also dedicated to identifying, tackling and exposing influence operations. The CIR aims to “raise awareness of the threat that influence operations, including disinformation, pose to democracy and objective truth, and to help counter them”.
A few days after the start of the war in Ukraine, the French Ministry of Defense set up a situation update and a map detailing the theater of operations. The map is available on the Ministry of Defense portal and is updated daily.
Situation maps from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW)
Daily reports and maps by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) supply the press (including Le Monde) with recent and precise information. The Institute for the Study of War is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy research organization. It “promotes an informed understanding of military affairs through trusted research, reliable analysis, and innovative education.”
Media cards in France and abroad
In France, reference sites such as Le Monde or Le Figaro offer to follow the advance of Russian troops via a series of maps based themselves on reliable data from the sources mentioned above. The Decoders of the World offer a map of the evolution of the Russian invasion from day to day, equipped in particular with a slider to navigate through the chronology of the conflict. Le Figaro has established several maps based on information from the Liveuamap site, the Graphicnews agency and other press agencies such as AFP.
On Twitter, the maps and situation reports of the historian and former soldier Michel Goya are among the most complete. These documents are also available on his blog. Abroad, the sites of the New York Times and the Washington Post, the two leading American media, also offer up-to-date maps.
The Battle of kyiv Mapped
The battle of kyiv, in particular, has been mapped by several media in France and around the world. Visactu, a French agency specializing in the production of press infographics, regularly offers updates on the situation in the Ukrainian capital. Le Monde, Le Figaro, the New York Times or the Washington Post are among the media that present the best summaries of the situation, such as the Kyiv Independenta newspaper from the Ukrainian capital which regularly reports on the situation.
Russia keeps throwing more military power west and east of Kyiv in a bid to possibly surround and penetrate the city.
The map shows the approximate Russian (red) and Ukrainian (blue) positions and axes of attack in the Battle of Kyiv as of March 12, 2022. pic.twitter.com/sKDpzPo4mm
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 12, 2022
In the UK, the BBC also has a page to follow the fighting in Ukraine. Some maps also allow you to find out about the situation in the capital. Another British media, the FinancialTimes also declines his cards until the clashes in kyiv.