Ukraine Crisis

For those wishing to engage with the data on a set platform, we have designed an interactive dashboard mapping both the lead up to and aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine as well as the civilian toll of the conflict; events related to the current Ukraine crisis are highlighted specifically. 

Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine (1 January 2018 to 23 February 2022), this includes all events involving: the United Armed Forces of Novorossiya (NAF); the Donbass People’s Militia; the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic; the police of the Donetsk People’s Republic; the Luhansk People’s Militia; the government of the Luhansk People’s Republic; the government of Russia; the military forces of Russia, including any sub-unit, such as the Special Forces; the police forces of Russia, including any sub-unit; the State Border Guard Service of the police forces of Ukraine; and the military forces of Ukraine, including any sub-unit. It also includes all events taking place in Donetsk or Luhansk involving unidentified armed groups and/or civilians, as well as all events occurring in the Black Sea, as these largely involve troop movements and posturing by Russian forces. For awareness and analysis, all strategic developments occurring in Donetsk, Luhansk, Crimea, and the Black Sea involving one of the named actors above are also included (for more on strategic developments and how to use them, see this methodology note). These events are depicted on the left-hand side of the dashboard. 

Since the invasion (24 February 2022 onward), all political violence events across the country involving all actors are included, as well as all strategic developments, for awareness and analysis on the left-hand side of the dashboard, and all events of civilian targeting are included on the right-hand side of the dashboard. 

These assumptions help to capture all violence occurring in the Donbas region related to the build up of tensions over the years, and the impact of ceasefires on conflict patterns (the latter can be seen via an interactive graph capturing trends in violence over time). Remaining violence in Ukraine that has taken place outside of this conflict pre-invasion is not visualized on the dashboard; all previous information collected on political violence and demonstrations in Ukraine since 1 January 2018 – some of which may not be directly related to the current crisis – is available for download via the curated data file above. 

Furthermore, in order to monitor the conflict’s impact on civilians, the dashboard also includes a panel that focuses on tracking violence targeting civilians in the aftermath of the invasion in particular. Please note that this includes only direct civilian targeting. It does not include events in which civilians may have been impacted as collateral damage. As such, this represents an underestimate of the conflict’s impact on civilians.