10 November 2024

Ukraine accuses Google of revealing locations of its military systems

Daryna Antoniuk

Ukraine is accusing Google of exposing the locations of its military sites in recent updates to its online mapping service.

Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation department at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said the images were spotted last week and have already been “actively distributed” by Russians. He did not provide further details about what was specifically revealed or how Moscow could use the obtained data.

In a comment to Recorded Future News on Tuesday, Kovalenko said Google hasn’t yet fixed the maps, explaining that the process to do so is not simple. He claimed the company only responded to official letters sent by Ukraine and promised to update the maps after the story became public.

Google did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication, but the company’s representatives in Ukraine told local media the satellite images in question were taken over a year ago and came from publicly available sources.

“We consciously avoid publishing the latest images of combat zones. We take such requests very seriously and maintain ongoing communication with Ukrainian officials,” Google Ukraine said, citing the company’s official response.

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