GEOLOC from DRONE war

[brisk egret]

Hello people, as i seen with @dark flax , i need your help for a study paper on the use of drones and robots in war. My point is not to discuss political or military matters. I need to geolocate the use of such weapons in order to lead my thesis. As you may now, the current conflict see a lot of such uses. I found on youtube an official ukrainian documentary showing the use of one robot which interests me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj10FusrKHE&list=WL&index=2

The period which matters starts from 22min08 to 22min50sec. The location i need to find is the exact GPS point at 22min50 from the drone's view.

I tried a lot of research, such as maps, sat views, trying to take some landscape marks or the antenna but it doesnot lead anywhere. We just know that we are in post winter 2023 in the east of Bakhmut. I would be so grateful to the people who will be able to help me. I would like to know if you succeed your methodology it would help me so much. Thanks and for the challengers, i think this is a difficult one.

[upbeat geyser]

48.504402, 37.902926

I can provide a more detailed proofing with a drawing if you need it, but this is your location.

[brisk egret]

@upbeat geyser unbelivable. Can you tell me how did you manage to find it? Your methodology. We can also mp if you prefer. Thank you so much it is a great help for me !!

[upbeat geyser]

I watched the video and took screenshots of anything I thought would help in my search. There were two shots that included the location you were looking for (20:40, 22:49), and a shot with the group of soldiers controlling the drone (22:43) that I found helpful.

I looked up the approximate front line around the time that this video was published using https://map.ukrdailyupdate.com/. It was also helpful that I knew where this unit was operating at the time, but the map is indispensable. In the video of the soldiers controlling the drone (22:43), we see two soldiers with a power transmission tower behind them. I used https://openinframap.org/ to find areas near the front that have high voltage power lines running through them. Next, I looked at topographic maps https://en-us.topographic-map.com/ because in the video we see stands of trees that run on either side of a low area. I also made some stitches of the source video to get the widest possible shot of the location using a program called Image Composite Editor.

So once I compiled all that information I start searching using Google Earth. I worked from Ozarianivke north to Zaliznyans'ke and then back south towards Stupochky and then further south, checking for a similar view to what we see around 20:40 in the source video. When I came across this location I was fairly confident it was what I was looking for, but I still needed to confirm. I checked the maps compiled by Project Owl https://www.google.com/mymaps/viewer?mid=180u1IkUjtjpdJWnIC0AxTKSiqK4G6Pez&hl=en_US and GeoConfirmed https://geoconfirmed.org/ukraine for any footage from this area to help confirm my find. The last step is to draw the proof where I match elements of the source video to any satellite imagery and video of the area I can find. I was in the process of doing this last night when my 14 year old graphics card crashed :P. I have that nearly worked out now, but will finish it only if you require it.

[brisk egret]

this is really impressive. First of all i thank you so much for the quick reaction of you to give me the solution. Then thank you again to take on your time the accurate and clear explanations you give me. I learned so much only with one of your message haha.

To be honest, i got confused because all the news paper were saying East Bakhmut so i went into the wrong direction. I also used inframap but i couldnt find the tower of the video. Then i thought that because the release of the doc was on march, the original footage should have been recorded at least 2 or 3 weeks back so in feb. So i couldnot find a precise location of the front line with these assumptions.

If you get time, i wouldnt like to give you more work, but i will try to copycat your methodology for a bunch of others cases that i would like to geolocate on other countries/conflict/times. So once again only if you agree, please go on with the last step, so that i can try to replicate this methodology further when possible. Once again thank you so much!

@upbeat geyser

[upbeat geyser]

No problem. I will finish that up today when I have a moment. (I am in the process of locating something else now)

[brisk egret]

thank you a lot

[upbeat geyser]

https://twitter.com/markito0171/status/1661387087017308164 Additional video used for my proof can be found here (00:22)

[brisk egret]

thank you a lot this is amazing clear and more than convincing

[brisk egret]

Would you be able to recommend me some official training to get your knowledge in OSINT? how did you manage to start your research in this era while newspapers were saying east bakhmut? @upbeat geyser

[upbeat geyser]

I don't have any official training! I hang around people much smarter than myself and hope some of that magic rubs off on me. This server is a great resource as well as the Project Owl server. This discord offers many informative free stage talks and Twitch streams that will help grow your knowledge. The Bellingcat Online Investigation Toolkit is very helpful as well. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18rtqh8EG2q1xBo2cLNyhIDuK9jrPGwYr9DI2UncoqJQ/edit#gid=930747607 bit.ly/bcattools

The best advice I can offer to someone interested in learning how to geolocate using open sources is to go out there and do it. If the war in Ukraine interests you then find clips available on Twitter, Telegram, Reddit, etc and geolocate them. If you have other interests then let them be your guide. There are a bunch of people on Twitter who can help guide you as well. If you search for "Geoconfirmed UAControlMap" it will return a long list of the best people doing geolocation work on the war in Ukraine. Follow their work.

[upbeat geyser]

Do you mean how did I know to look where I did when some sources were saying a different location? I didn't rely on those sources. Some of what I know regarding this geolocation is based off following the war day to day. If a source is saying east Bakhmut and your search isn't turning up any results then you should check other sources. The Ukraine control maps are a great resource for finding out where fighting was taking place at a certain point in time. https://map.ukrdailyupdate.com/ is a great resource, but so is https://geoconfirmed.org/ukraine (which offers a slider to see specific time frames) and https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/733fe90805894bfc8562d90b106aa895 from the Institute for the Study of War https://www.understandingwar.org/ and Critical Threats https://www.criticalthreats.org/.

I hope that answers your question. If you are interested in formal training then maybe one of the staff members here can point you in the right direction.

[brisk egret]

well this is passionating. i took in note everything and all the links you shared. Thanks, its a long road to come but very stimulating! im going to apply your recommendations too to try to tackle this field of research. i would say one more time, thank you !