Ukraine invasion played out online as web sleuths trawl intelligence

A person holds a sign as they attend the Ukrainian Catholic Church service, in Nottingham, Britain. Before missiles started pounding Ukraine, Osint sleuths played an important role in keeping tabs on the military buildup that preceded the invasion, assessing troop deployments with satellite images. — Reuters

When data enthusiast Oliver Alexander saw online security camera footage showing military trucks on a Ukrainian road hours after Russia launched its military assault, he noticed a familiar detail.

“You could see that they had diagonal lines painted on them, which is what was spotted on units based in Crimea. So you could tell they were coming from there,” Alexander said by phone, referring to the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula.