A Ukraine Map that I Like

with some critiques

I was hopeful that I could break my habit of doom scrolling about the war in Ukraine and wasting time by playing Europa Universalis IV this week. Unfortunately, neither of these things happened. So, I have a final tranche of thoughts about how the ongoing war is being mapped.

I hope what you take away from Maps and Ethics: Ukraine, Just say no to theater-level maps, and this post is a robust understanding of how maps shape and create your beliefs. I get that many of you are annoyed at me for saying this in each post, but every day I see people credulously accepting Russian spin on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Reddit because it is on a map. Maps are not facts and are not value-neutral.

What I like

I think I have been enough of a rainstorm for today and have talked enough about which maps I do not like. This brings up the obvious companion question of which maps I do like. The best map that I have seen so far is this map by JominiW. It is part of a series that he makes and seems to be updated regularly.

Jomini of the West @JominiW

1/ Ukrainian Theater of War, Day 14: After two weeks of war, Russian forces continue employ indiscriminate attacks to demoralize Ukrainian political resolve and military resistance. This growing war of attrition has not changed Western opinion on intervention. #UkraineWar

One of the big things that I like is that rather than reinvent the wheel, JominiW is using a modified version of the NATO Joint Military Symbology. As one might imagine, NATO makes a large number of maps of battles and maneuvers. For interoperability reasons, they have released a 558-page mapping guide that covers everything from colors to symbols for every imaginable kind of unit. For example, this would be the symbol for a team of cartographers with unknown allegiance.

The program wouldn’t let me, but you can put them on bicycles by adding an “O” in the bottom third of the cloverleaf

I also like how the cartographer chose to show where the front lines are, but not a nebulas zone of control. I think I make a decent case last week as to why the trendy maps with red-shaded areas purporting to show where Russia “controls” that are misinformation at best. If you are still skeptical, Foreign Policy published a good run-down of the arguments against them the other day.

The way that Crimea, Donbas, and Transnistria are shown is not my favorite way to show that there are active territorial disputes, but they work. The biggest thing I would quibble over is the exact wording used. But that is relatively minor.

Critiques

While I like the map that JominiW made, I still have some minor critiques of it.

Clarity

Since NATO is not, currently, a belligerent in this war, I would switch the symbols of NATO and Ukraine. Green squares are the color of a neutral force while blue rectangles are used for friendly forces. It would also solve the color incongruity of the fronts; Ukraine’s front is blue, but its units are green. Small things like this make it slightly more difficult for a viewer to understand what is going on.

Part of the larger map

Similarly, the units of Belarus are in yellow diamonds. I would rather they were in the yellow cloverleaf that the spec has for “unknown” since we do not know how much of a role they are playing in the conflict. The shape difference makes it just slightly quicker for a viewer to understand the map.

In the NATO symbology system, civilians are represented by what looks like the female symbol at first blush but is probably a simplified stick figure. My problem is that, on this map, they blend in with the units since they are the same color and are sometimes in the same shape. I can not tell if the civilian in Kherson is a unit of civilians who are fighting the Russians or civilians trapped in the city.

From page 3-56 of the NATO Joint Military Symbology

In other maps which use the NATO system that I have seen, civilian refugees are placed in hot pink squares. That might be a good way to differentiate between the two kinds of civilians in this conflict. The other option would be to use a modifier above or below the symbol. The spec calls for placing “DPRE” above any group of displaced people.

Copyright issues

The base map that JominiW uses are tiles from OpenStreetMap (OSM). I think they are the standard OSM tiles, but they could also be another group’s version of the tiles. Whichever one, the tiles are subject to copyright protection. To satisfy the Open Database License the OSM contributions should be attributed. If the tiles are from a third party, their licensing scheme needs to be followed.