How We Verify War Footage
Most of the footage on The Chronicles arrives from independent channels operated by Ukrainian military units, volunteers, and on-the-ground reporters. This page describes the steps we take — and the limits of those steps — when we vouch for a video.
Last updated: May 2026
Channel verification
A 'Verified channel' badge means we have confirmed the channel identity through at least one of: direct introduction by a known partner brigade or volunteer, public attribution by a verified Ukrainian government source, or persistent operational continuity correlated with public reporting. Verification is a channel-level signal — it does not certify each individual video as authentic.
Geolocation
When a post includes coordinates, those coordinates were either supplied by the source channel or extracted from EXIF metadata at upload. We do not run independent geolocation against unverified videos at scale; if you find an incorrect location, please use our correction form.
OSINT cross-references
For high-impact strikes and notable events, we cross-reference open-source intelligence (OSINT) outlets and public reporting. When OSINT consensus contradicts a source's claim, we annotate the video, restrict its visibility, or remove it.
Limits of remote verification
We do not have ground access to verify every video. Footage may be staged, mis-attributed, or from a different conflict. We mark uncertainty explicitly and welcome corrections from readers, fact-checkers, and OSINT contributors.