Die Russen nutzen Google Maps auf der Suche nach vermissten Soldaten

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, four years ago, around a million Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded. But the family members of missing or dead soldiers often aren’t informed of their loved ones’ fates. People know to start worrying once their relatives stop responding to messages; the longer a soldier fails to appear online on platforms such as Telegram, the more likely it is that something has gone wrong. At this point, a family member might post a sort of bulletin on social media about contact having been lost. These bulletins, thousands of which can be found on Russian social-media and messaging platforms, usually include the soldier’s name, date of birth, call sign, battalion, and physical details that could help identify him, such as tattoos and scars. 

This is often just the beginning of a grim digital odyssey that can last months, or even years, from the first bulletin to monitoring crowdsourced databases of the rumored dead. For some, this journey can lead to an unlikely place of last resort: Google Maps reviews. At the link, Sophie Spiegelberger writes about how the online tool became a site for digital pleas of desperation.