Google removed photos of Ukraine's military sites from its map, Ukrainian official says
The locations of military sites in Ukraine are no longer displayed on Google Maps, said Andrii Kovalenko, head of the Counter-Disinformation Center under Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, on Nov. 7.
Kovalenko reported earlier on Nov. 3 that the tech giant's online map service had revealed the locations of Ukrainian defense infrastructure after a recent update.
He said that images of Ukrainian military sites were visible on Google Maps and that Russian forces were "actively dispersing" the images.
"Google fixed the situation with maps... In the future, everything will be OK as well," Kovalenko said on Nov. 7.
According to Google's press service, the satellite images were taken more than a year ago and come from publicly available sources.
"We deliberately do not publish the latest images of war zones," the company said in its statement published on Nov. 6.
Kovalenko argued that old photos can reveal the strategy behind weapon locations, aiding Russia.
Francis Farrell
