European-University Viadrina/CRC 1187 project “War Sensing” and the Center for Urban History in Lviv/Telegram Archive of the War

The ongoing Russian full-scale war against Ukraine is documented not only by institutions but also by civilians who record and share their experiences via digital platforms. Among these, Telegram continues to play a crucial role as a space for coordination, expression, information exchange, and collective sense-making (Nazaruk, 2022). As part of an ongoing collaboration between the “War Sensing” project (European University Viadrina and the CRC “Media of Cooperation”) and the Telegram Archive of the War (Center for Urban History in Lviv), the three-day event “War Sensing through the Telegram Archive of the War” aims to re-actualise the role of digital archives in the rapidly changing digital and political environment.

The Telegram Archive of the War (further: the Archive), curated by the Center for Urban History in Lviv, captures the digital dimension of the war. Since February 2022, the Center has been systematically archiving public Telegram channels related to the war, including those used for evacuation, OSINT, mutual aid, memes, infrastructures, or local reporting. The Archive, therefore, offers a unique basis for empirical, inventive and interpretive research into how war is experienced, represented and documented. Our collaboration during this conference and data sprint builds on the previous data sprint with the Archive organised in 2022 (see Bareikytė et al. 2024), and aims to update research on digital platform archives with contemporary questions and approaches.

The event consists of a pre-conference event in Frankfurt (Oder) (22.09.2025), a hybrid conference featuring keynote talks and tutorials (23.09.2025), and hands-on work with the Archive’s data during the two-day datasprint (23-25.09.2025). The programme outline is shared below, and the final programme, including the Zoom links, will be sent to registered participants. 

1. Pre-conference event, 22.09.2025:

Presentation and Reading with Q&A (offline, in German), 18:00-19:30 Frankfurt (Oder)

Das Russland-Netzwerk. Wie der Kreml die deutsche Demokratie angreift [The Russia Network: How the Kremlin is attacking German democracy] by Susanne Spahn (University of Passau), moderated by Johanna Hiebl (European University Viadrina).

2. Hybrid conference, 23.09.2025 (online, in Frankfurt (Oder) and Lviv):

Keynote lecture, 10:00–10:45 Frankfurt (Oder) [11:00–11:45 Lviv]: 

Telegram Archive of the War – Context and Curatorial Ethics by Taras Nazaruk (Center for Urban History, Lviv), moderated by Johanna Hiebl (European University Viadrina). 

Evening public talks, 17:00–19:00 Frankfurt (Oder)  [18:00–20:00 Lviv]: 

Labour of Witnessing by Asia Bazdyrieva (Critical Media Lab Basel) and Svitlana Matviyenko (Simon Fraser University) 

Detention and Filtration Practices with Daria Hetmanova (Simon Fraser University), moderated by Miglė Bareikytė (European University Viadrina).

3. Hybrid Data sprint, 23-25.09.2025 (online, in Frankfurt (Oder) and Lviv):

During the data sprint, we would like to invite scholars, artists, civic tech and OSINT communities, journalists, and civil society actors to work collaboratively with selected datasets from the Archive. 

Tutorials on the Telegram Archive, 23.09.2025: 16:00-18:00 Frankfurt (Oder)  [17:00–19:00 Lviv]. 

Hands-on work with the Telegram Archive: 24.09.2025 and 25.09.2025 from 9:00 until 17:00 Frankfurt (Oder)  [10:00–18:00 Lviv]: 

The data sprint participants will explore curated datasets and can join to (collaboratively or individually) work on the following themes/projects: detention and filtration, sabotage, crowd witnessing (cf. Andén-Papadopoulos, 2013) and trustworthiness of OSINT outputs (cf. Digital Method Initiative, 2024).

• Detention Centers

This project group aims to systematically map detention centers established by occupying forces in Ukraine's territories. During the data sprint the group will focus on the use and perception of detention centers—both formal and makeshift. The group explores the evidentiary and investigative potential of Telegram data in identifying possible detention sites, tracking forced relocations and narratives of capture and imprisonment, and understanding civilian-led search practices to enable advocacy and accountability efforts for deported and missing Ukrainian children. 

•  Sabotage

This project argues that, alongside disinformation, contemporary sabotage and the growing number of unexplained attacks are fuelling fears about the future of Europe, including Ukraine and beyond. At the same time, sabotage can contribute to acts of resistance, which can destabilise the Russian occupation of parts of Ukraine. Using data selected from the Telegram Archive of War, this project aims to categorise narratives of sabotage in Ukraine in 2022-23. The project's overarching goal is to explore how sabotage is portrayed on Telegram and to illustrate its role as a contemporary form of destabilisation and resistance during wartime. 

• Witnessing the War

The outbreak of the full-scale invasion became visible through Telegram as citizens of Ukrainian cities turned to urban chats to share and corroborate their experiences due to the lack of official news coverage. The Telegram Archive of the War creates a unified message feed that documents the chronological development and regional variations of the collective witnessing of the first days of the invasion. The goal of this project is to analyse more specifically what wartime practices are represented in the archived dataset. 

• Assessing trustworthiness of OSINT outputs on Telegram

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) outputs became an important way for thoroughly analysing events during Russia’s war against Ukraine, such as tracking military movements or crowdsourcing information. Nevertheless, the flood of user-generated content on Telegram raises serious challenges for assessing its reliability and trustworthiness. Existing evaluation frameworks, such as the “Amsterdam Matrix” (Digital Method Initiative, 2024) on assessing trustworthiness of OSINT-labelled posts on Twitter/X, offer guidance but cannot simply be transferred to another platform, such as Telegram, where unique styles, cultures, and formats shape how information is disseminated. This project therefore further develops a systematic methodology tailored to Telegram, aiming to improve the reliability of OSINT verification and accelerate the detection of misinformation.

The hybrid conference, combined with the data sprint, offers the possibility to join the event in Frankfurt (Oder)/Słubice, Lviv, or online. To participate, please send a short email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 15.09.2025, expressing your interest to join the public keynote events. If you would like to participate in the data sprint, please specify which project group during the data sprint you want to join. We will follow up with more details and an updated schedule closer to the event.

This data sprint is part of the ongoing collaboration between the “War Sensing” project (European University Viadrina and the CRC “Media of Cooperation”) with Prof. Dr. Miglė Bareikytė and Johanna Hiebl and the Telegram Archive of War (Center for Urban History in Lviv) with Taras Nazaruk.