The Washington Post details how a team of researchers used Google Maps in conjunction with radar imagery to track the movement of Russian troops invading Ukraine before the general public was informed of the situation.
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When Dr. Jeffrey Lewis , a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, noticed a spike in traffic at 3:15 a.m. near the Ukrainian border, he knew it wasn’t your typical rush-hour traffic. Lewis and his students discovered the incident on February 23, shortly before the Russian invasion began. They were forced to check Google Maps only after seeing Russian tanks and other military vehicles near the same location in a radar image taken by the Earth observation team Capella Space .
“In the old days, we relied on a reporter to show us what was happening on the ground,” Lewis told The Post. “Today, you can just open Google Maps and see people fleeing Kiev.”
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Google Maps uses data to track traffic conditions. In a Twitter thread, Lewis speculated that the heavy traffic Google recorded was likely not from Russian soldiers carrying their mobile phones, but instead was recorded by the phones of civilians stuck at roadblocks. After Russian troops began moving into Ukraine, The Post notes that Google Maps showed closed roads in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, along with suspended metro service throughout the city.
The Post reports that it is unclear whether Google Maps provides SOS alerts — a notification that alerts users to major crises or the locations of bomb shelters — to people in Ukraine. However, Google Maps does display information about subway stations, some of which are used as shelters. Damian Menscher, a security engineer at Google, notes on Twitter that Google Maps usage has skyrocketed in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.
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Google Maps seems to have become an incredible tool, both for civilians and soldiers on the ground in Ukraine, as well as for foreigners monitoring the situation, and the Washington Post report really highlights this. Along with the prevalence of social media, people in Ukraine can broadcast their stories to thousands, if not millions, of people around the world, providing information that outsiders would typically only have access to through traditional news outlets.
