Sources & method
How figures are gathered, labelled and shown on this site.
Educational purposes only
This site summarises public reporting on armed conflicts and military operations for learning and discussion. It is not a news service, and it is not suitable for operational, safety, legal or investment decisions. Figures are contested and change quickly; always check them against the linked sources.
How the data was gathered
Each conflict and operation was researched against published sources: UN agencies (OCHA, UNHCR, IOM, WHO), conflict-data projects (ACLED, UCDP), think tanks (CFR, Crisis Group), official government and military statements (labelled as such) and major news agencies. Every figure, key fact, strike, negotiation and development stores the URL of the page that states it and the date it refers to. Where sources disagree, the site shows every figure and the range between them.
The complete list, with links, is on the fact-check page. The
build scripts are in the project's tools/ folder: build_seed.py validates the research and drops
anything without a usable source.
Maps
Country borders come from Natural Earth (public domain). Crimea is drawn as part of Ukraine, in line with UN General Assembly resolution 68/262, and the area under Russian military control is shaded as a zone.
Conflict zones and lines of contact are approximate and illustrative. They were traced by hand from public reporting up to late 2025 and are not authoritative maps. Each shape links to the organisations that publish detailed, frequently updated control maps, such as ISW / Critical Threats and DeepStateMap for Ukraine, and ACLED and Crisis Group for other theaters. Zone colours describe who holds an area (another state's forces, or a non-state armed group) or where fighting is widespread, not any judgement about the parties.
Orange dots are ACLED event hotspots: the centre of each province, sized by political-violence events recorded there in the last 12 months. Charts count battles, explosions/remote violence and violence against civilians, and leave out protests and riots. Where a conflict covers only part of a country (for example Gaza and the West Bank, or the Lake Chad basin), only the matching provinces are counted. Event data: ACLED, acleddata.com.
Rules we follow
- Every number shows its source name, a link, and an as-of date.
- Where sources disagree, we show the range and list each source rather than picking one figure.
- Figures are labelled reported, estimated or confirmed, following the source.
- Parties are described factually by name and role, in neutral language.
- No article text or photos are copied. We summarise facts in our own words and link out.
- Negotiation entries list parties, mediators, status, last development date and a source.
- Every page shows when its data was last updated.
Dataset freshness
| Dataset | Provider | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Conflicts and operations | Curated research, web-verified | 1 Oct 2026, 00:00 UTC |
| Negotiations | Curated research, web-verified | 30 Sep 2026, 00:00 UTC |
| Developments | Curated research, web-verified | 1 Oct 2026, 00:00 UTC |
| Displacement (UNHCR, end-2025) | UNHCR Refugee Data Finder | 5 Nov 2026, 03:42 UTC |
| Events (ACLED, week of 24 Oct 2026) | ACLED | 24 Oct 2026, 00:00 UTC |
| Fatalities (UCDP 26.0.9) | UCDP | 21 Oct 2026, 03:36 UTC |
Data sources
| Source | Used for | Status |
|---|---|---|
| UCDP (Uppsala Conflict Data Program) | Fatality estimates (best, low and high) for the current year from the monthly GED Candidate releases; checked daily | In use |
| ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data) | Weekly aggregated data by province: monthly trends, event types, most affected provinces, map hotspots. Checked daily; ACLED publishes new files weekly. | In use |
| UNHCR Refugee Data Finder | Forcibly displaced people by country of origin (refreshed daily from the UNHCR API) | In use |
| ReliefWeb / HDX | Humanitarian reports and datasets (cited and linked, not copied) | Cited |
| Crisis Group CrisisWatch | Monthly conflict status (link only) | Linked |
| CFR Global Conflict Tracker | Editorial context (link only) | Linked |
| Natural Earth | Country boundaries for maps (public domain) | In use |