What is Intel Mapper

Intel Mapper is a live open-source-intelligence (OSINT) war map. It follows two theatres around the clock: the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the wider Middle East, from the Israel–Lebanon front and Syria to Yemen, the Red Sea and the Gulf. Every marker on the map is a single, dated event: a strike, a shoot-down, a ground assault, a naval incident, a capture, or a significant political statement, placed at the most precise location the sources support.

Events are gathered from monitored Telegram channels, X accounts, official military statements (for example the Ukrainian General Staff) and mapping projects such as DeepState and the Wikipedia conflict maps. Each report is read by a language model that extracts what happened, who did it, where and when, and then passed through a chain of deterministic checks: duplicate detection across channels, geocoding against our own settlement gazetteer and OpenStreetMap, country and region consistency guards, and frontline snapping for close-combat reports.

Every event carries a confidence score and a source count. One channel claiming a strike is not the same as three independent channels plus satellite-derived thermal detections, and the map shows that difference. Uncertain locations are drawn with an orange ring instead of a hard pin. Our methodology page explains the scoring in detail.

How to use the map

Switch theatres with the buttons at the top. The layer panel lets you toggle borders and control zones, event markers, the heat-map of activity, live military flights and US bases, and the Recent changes layers that hatch every area which changed hands in the last seven days (DeepState for Ukraine, Wikipedia-derived control maps for the Middle East). Click any marker for the full report, media and sources; click a control zone for its statistics. The time slider at the bottom replays borders and the previous 24 hours of events for any day since February 2026. A daily brief for each theatre is published every evening.

Coverage areas

Ukraine. The full contact line from Kharkiv to Kherson, deep-strike campaigns on Russian refineries, air bases and logistics, and Russian drone and missile waves against Ukrainian cities, with control changes taken from DeepState.

Middle East. The Israel–Lebanon front, Syria after Assad, the West Bank and Gaza, Iraq, and Iranian activity, including strikes on shipping and Gulf infrastructure.

Yemen and the Red Sea. The Houthi–Government war, Houthi attacks on shipping, coalition strikes, and control of the Bab al-Mandab approaches, using the Wikipedia control map and verified capture reports.

Today's brief — 2026-09-28

Iran escalates Gulf assertiveness; Russia sustains drone assault on Ukraine infrastructure

Russia conducted sustained drone and missile operations against Ukrainian infrastructure on 28 September, launching a massed attack of 124 unmanned aerial vehicles—86 reactive/Shahed-type drones—primarily targeting the Kyiv region. Ukrainian air defense intercepted or suppressed 86 drones, though systems confirmed multiple strikes including a Shahed-136 impact on the National Academy of Sciences building in central Kyiv with rescue operations ongoing, and strikes on Dnipro and Brovary logistics facilities resulting in documented casualties and destruction. A Russian jet-powered drone also struck near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing between Poland and Ukraine, prompting Polish activation of air defense systems and fighter jet scrambles, though no direct strikes on Polish territory occurred. Concurrent Ukrainian air monitoring tracked multiple drone transits over Kyiv, Kyiv Oblast, and Chernihiv Oblast, indicating sustained Russian operational tempo.

Iran's Supreme Leader reasserted control over maritime approaches on 28 September, declaring that enemy forces will not enter the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea while pledging to clear them from the region. Concurrently, Iran displayed a captured U.S. REMUS 600 underwater vehicle with a 'Hormuz Hunt' banner, signaling assertive posture regarding Strait of Hormuz security. Separately, reports indicate Iran conducted an anti-ship missile attack on a vessel carrying U.S. Marines in the Strait, with casualties reported, though single-source confirmation limits immediate verification. These statements and reported actions reflect sustained Iranian efforts to establish de facto control over critical waterways amid existing regional tensions.

Read the full Ukraine brief · Middle East brief · Archive

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