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 — 2026-09-15

Syria sanctions lifted as regional tensions spike; Ukraine sustains deep strikes on Russian energy infrastructure

Ukrainian forces executed a sustained campaign against Russian rear-area energy and military infrastructure overnight September 14-15, striking the Syzran oil refinery (8.9 million tons annual capacity) in Samara Oblast and the Atlant Aero drone manufacturing facility in Taganrog. Direct hits on the Syzran crude distillation unit AVT-6 and tank farms caused fires; the Atlant facility produces Molnya reconnaissance-strike UAVs. Ukrainian forces also destroyed the Slavyansk-on-Kuban oil refinery, struck the Nizhnekamsk refinery in Tatarstan, and targeted fuel storage depots in Novosvitiivka and across Bryansk and Oryol Oblasts. These strikes follow an established pattern of degrading Russian logistical capacity and energy production. Ukrainian General Staff reports cumulative Russian military casualties of 301,030 killed and wounded since January 2026, with summer months (June-August) accounting for 124,170 losses, indicating sustained attrition pressure.

Syria's President Ahmad al-Sharaa announced the lifting of international sanctions through mediation by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the Trump administration, marking a significant diplomatic realignment in the Levant. Al-Sharaa characterized Syria as 'reborn' following relief from what he described as unprecedented sanctions comparable to North Korea's isolation. This development follows months of regional diplomatic repositioning and reflects broader shifts in great-power involvement in Middle Eastern affairs. Egypt dispatched a high-level delegation to Damascus for bilateral talks, signaling renewed diplomatic engagement. The sanctions relief announcement, coupled with ongoing Turkish-led initiatives including the Middle Corridor and Zangezur Corridor projects, indicates accelerating normalization efforts across the region despite persistent security challenges.

Read the full Ukraine brief · Middle East brief · Archive

Latest reports

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• Tracking Houthi Strikes in the Red Sea: How Analysts Monitor Maritime Attacks
• The Israel–Lebanon Front: Geography, Actors and Understanding Strike Reports
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• Reading Confidence Scores: Making Sense of Intel Mapper's Reliability Ratings

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