How Tourists Use OSINT and Maps to Explore Ukraine During War

It’s 2025. Tourists visiting Ukraine are no longer packing only guidebooks and translation apps — they’re packing satellite maps, Telegram bots, and open-source data.

Welcome to the age of OSINT tourism — where navigating a war-touched country requires the same tools used by journalists, humanitarians, and analysts.

It’s not about chasing danger. It’s about understanding space, risk, and memory in a way traditional tourism never demanded.

🛰️ 1. Google Maps, But War-Aware

Standard Google Maps still shows some destroyed bridges as “open” and ignores checkpoints. That’s where OSINT-minded travelers adapt:

• Use satellite view to assess structural damage

• Check latest reviews for recent activity (or sudden silence)

• Add custom pins for shelters, safe zones, or historical ruins

In Bucha, travelers mark exact apartment buildings shown in war reports. In Mykolaiv, murals on destroyed walls are pinned as memorials.

📱 2. Telegram: The New Guidebook

Instead of TripAdvisor, travelers follow:

• @UkraineAlertBot — for live siren alerts

• @DeepStateMap — interactive frontlines updated daily

• Local news channels — to track electricity outages, curfews, events

Some even check pro-Ukrainian OSINT groups for contextual background before visiting a location. This isn’t casual tourism. It’s informed solidarity.

🗺️ 3. Custom War Maps: When Visitors Become Digital Cartographers

Many travelers now build their own Google Maps layers. These include:

• Museums and memorials

• Shelling sites with public access

• Safe cafés or hotels with power and water

• Places where documentaries were filmed (see article #3 😉)

Some publish these maps online to help others — creating a grassroots archive of war geography, in real time.

🧠 4. Why This Matters

Because wartime travel in Ukraine is a new kind of tourism:
✔️ Not about checking landmarks
✔️ But about decoding space and trauma
✔️ And doing so respectfully, responsibly, and with clarity

These tools help travelers avoid unsafe areas — but also engage with the story beneath the surface.

💬 Quote from a Traveler

“I wasn’t coming to ‘see ruins.’ I was coming to understand what happened, and what still happens. My map wasn’t about directions — it was about memory.”
— Natalie, PhD student from the Netherlands