Google Maps has released updated images showing the location of unspecified Ukrainian military systems, with the tech giant “working to rectify the situation”, a kyiv official said, as forces try to fend off fierce Russian attacks and slow advances, facing winter. season.

Russia is “actively dispersing” images highlighting Ukraine’s military equipment, Andriy Kovalenko, an official who heads the disinformation branch of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday.

Kovalenko did not say what equipment appeared in the images or the approximate location of the systems. Representatives of Google approached the Ukrainian authorities and “they said that they are already working to rectify the situation with the images of our military systems,” Kovalenko said in a later statement.

news week has contacted Google for comment via email.

Andrii Ziuz, former chief executive of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council and current chief technology officer of London-based Prevail, suggested news week on Sunday that the impact of the updated images would have only a limited impact on Ukraine’s armed forces.

These images would only show stationary objects, such as manufacturing plants and training grounds, added Ivan Stupak, a former officer in kyiv’s SBU security service.

“The front line is constantly changing, so Google Maps is not useful,” Stupak said. news week.

Satellite imagery has been used routinely throughout the more than two and a half years of large-scale war, both by the military engaged in the conflict and by outside analysts observing the conflict. It has been used to assess damage to targets following missile or drone attacks, but can typically only be of limited use in planning and launching attacks against targets that can move quickly.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s top soldier, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Ukraine was “stopping one of the most powerful Russian offensives” since February 2022.

Fierce fighting is expected to continue throughout the rapidly approaching winter in the war-torn country, as Russia makes slow but steady advances in besieged eastern Ukraine.

It has seized a large number of villages in recent months, with battles east of the regional centre, Pokrovsk. The Kremlin has also advanced west of Bakhmut, the devastated city of Donetsk that Russia captured in May 2023, and has poured resources into taking Toretsk, southwest of Bakhmut.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had captured Vishnevoye, a village southeast of Pokrovsk and west of Selydove, which Moscow said it had taken last week.

The Kremlin said on Saturday it had taken control of Kurakhivka, a village near Vishnevoye. Kurakhivka lies immediately west of Oleksandropil, which Russia claimed about a week ago.

news week was unable to independently verify battlefield reports.