A Washington Post report details how a research team used a combination of Google Maps and radar imagery to track the whereabouts of Russian troops, alerting the general public about Russia’s military campaign against Ukraine before they got the news.
When Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury School of International Studies in California, noticed particularly bad traffic near the Ukrainian border at 3:15 a.m., he knew it wasn’t typical peak-hour congestion.
Lewis and his students discovered the blockage on February 23 — just before Russia launched its military campaign. They checked Google Maps after seeing Russian tanks and other military vehicles near the same location in radar images taken by Earth observation group Capella Space.
According @googlemaps, there is a “traffic jam” at 3:15 in the morning on the road from Belgorod, Russia to the Ukrainian border. It starts *exactly* where we saw a Russian formation of armor and IFV/APCs show up yesterday.
Someone’s on the move. pic.twitter.com/BYyc5YZsWL— Dr. Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) February 24, 2022
In the past, we would have relied on journalists to show us what was happening on the ground, Lewis told The Washington Post. And today, you can open Google Maps and see people fleeing Kiev.
Google Maps uses real-time data from smartphones to track traffic conditions. In a thread on Twitter, Lewis speculated that the heavy traffic Google recorded was likely captured not from Russian soldiers with cellphones, but from civilians stuck in roadblocks.
The Washington Post pointed out that after Russian troops began to enter Ukraine, Google Maps showed that roads in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, were closed and subway service was suspended throughout the city.
The Washington Post said it was unclear whether Google Maps was providing Ukrainian people with SOS alerts — a notification that warns nearby users of a major crisis — or the location of air raid shelters.
However, Google Maps did show information for subway stations, some of which were used as shelters. Google’s security and reliability engineer Damian Menscher noted on Twitter that Google Maps usage in Ukraine has surged since Russia began its military campaign.
Google Maps seems to have become an unlikely tool — both for civilians and soldiers on the ground in Ukraine, as well as for outsiders tracking disruptive situations — and the Washington Post report does highlight that.
With the prevalence of social media, Ukrainians have been able to spread their stories to thousands, if not millions, of people from all over the world, providing insight and information that the outside world would normally get through traditional news channels.