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 — 2026-09-22

Syria diplomacy advances amid Iran sanctions; Ukraine sustains refinery strikes as NATO reinforces east

Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure sustained momentum across the reporting period. Ukrainian armed forces conducted confirmed drone strikes on the Kuibyshev Oil Refinery in Samara (KNPZ), causing fire at primary oil processing units AVT-4, and on the Bashnefte-UNPZ refinery in Ufa, which processes 7.5 million tonnes of crude oil annually. Additionally, Ukrainian forces struck a Russian combat drone storage, preparation, and launch facility near Tsimbulatovo in Orel Oblast with confirmed damage to at least three drone storage buildings. These strikes represent continued Ukrainian targeting of Russian rear-area energy and military production capacity despite heavy Russian air activity. Russia responded with 87 airstrikes (305 guided bombs) and 9,647 kamikaze drones across 248 combat clashes on 21-22 September, with Russian ballistic missiles striking an oil and gas facility in Poltava region, with Naftogaz reporting critical damage.

Syrian diplomatic engagement accelerated as President Bashar al-Shara and Foreign Minister Hasan Shayyah attended the UN General Assembly in New York, marking significant re-engagement following Syria's regional rehabilitation. Al-Shara separately met with US Congressional members to discuss bilateral relations, reconstruction, and regional stability. This diplomatic momentum reflects Syria's integration into broader regional diplomatic channels, though substantive outcomes remain to be determined. Concurrently, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan participated in expanded Quad+ coordination meetings involving Egypt, Qatar, Pakistan, Jordan, and UAE representatives, indicating multilateral efforts to manage regional tensions and stabilize the broader Middle Eastern theatre.

Read the full Ukraine brief · Middle East brief · Archive

Latest reports

• One Explosion, Five Channels: How Conflict Mappers Handle Duplicate Reports
• How Russian Overnight Strikes Work: The Drone-Then-Missile Sequence
• Tracking Houthi Strikes in the Red Sea: How Analysts Monitor Maritime Attacks
• The Israel–Lebanon Front: Geography, Actors and Understanding Strike Reports
• How Modern Air Defence Systems Work: Patriot, IRIS-T and NASAMS Explained
• Reading Confidence Scores: Making Sense of Intel Mapper's Reliability Ratings

About · Methodology · Privacy · Contact · Daily briefs · Reports · All events