U k r a і n e w a r   a r c h i v e

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Ukraine War Archive (UWA) is a non-profit collaborative digital preservation platform that creates a unified register of materials related to the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

With innovative technological and methodological approaches, it serves as a tool for Ukrainian and international organizations to preserve history and fairly represent events in legal, historical, and cultural discourse, establishing a foundation for truth and justice.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT

Russia’s war against Ukraine is now the most well-documented act of military aggression in history. To make these first-hand records available for use in criminal courts, investigative journalism, research, and art, they must be collected and stored professionally. That’s why the Archive uses state of the art systematisation to ensure secure storage and the effective search of materials.

ARCHIVE MATERIALS

We collect materials that cover civilian resistance against the Russian army, as well as the destruction, violence and other crimes committed in Ukraine by the aggressor. We also store materials about the realities of everyday life for Ukrainians during wartime, including evacuations, hiding in bomb shelters, and other such experiences.

Ukraine War Archive also preserves interviews with eye-witnesses to the events of war, recorded by our team. We are always looking for people willing to tell us their own war stories in person. If your home was damaged or looted by Russian forces, if you have had to evacuate your hometown due to shelling, or if violence against civilians has been committed in front of you then please contact us. We are working to ensure that the testimonies collected in interviews can be used in court to punish perpetrators.

WHO WE ARE

Ukraine War Archive was founded in March 2022 by a joint team of NGO Docudays and Infoscope.

NGO Docudays is a Ukrainian organization that runs Docudays UA, the biggest human rights documentary film festival in Eastern Europe.

Infoscope is a UK non-commercial organization which develops and implements technological solutions for data archiving and analysis.

The Archive team comprises 50 full-time professionals as well as volunteers.

OUR GOAL

• To create a unified database containing digital materials and registered evidence of war crimes against Ukraine, with the involvement of a broad network of both Ukrainian and international partners.
• To establish the archive as a convenient and effective tool in the search for and analysis of materials regarding Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
• To ensure the long-term secure storage of materials and information.
• To help protect the public from misinformation and combat Russian propaganda.
• To facilitate justice for the people of Ukraine.
• To preserve the history of the Ukrainian people’s resistance for the future and to defend against the potential manipulation of facts.

We also collect:

• records of daily events, registering potential war crimes;
• audio, video and photo materials from open sources;
• information about the location of Russian military units;
• materials from published research and investigations;
• a database of Russian propaganda and the development of pro-Russian narratives.

We have developed a platform to process and archive the data with user-friendly interfaces for search, analysis, and administration.

All the materials are analysed and described by the Archive’s tagging team using a specially developed list of keywords and categories. In addition, the materials are transcribed and translated to English.

Ukraine War Archive is not a public resource. Access to it can be obtained after a background check and authorisation. There are three access levels to the Archive information. This ensures personal data and sensitive information protection.

The Archive exists in several copies. Access to the platform is regulated by cybersecurity protocols and instruments.

We have developed a data processing model for comparison and cross-referencing which allows us to find qualitative and quantitative links between all the Archive materials. The platform allows for sorting the materials by keywords and number of matches as well as select priorities for further examination.

Users can create their own collections of selected materials and export them for external use.