Undeniable truths of the Russia-Ukraine conflict shown in this street view campaign
By Rupert Cole on Tuesday, February 21, 2023
February 24th will mark one whole year since Vladimir Putin launched his devastating attack on Ukraine. The conflict over the past year has resulted in thousands of deaths, forced migration for millions of innocent civilians, and the destruction of large parts of Ukraine. In order to mark this devastating anniversary, and to shine a light on exactly how much the war has affected the landscape of Ukraine, creative agency And Us have created the world’s first interactive street view of a war zone.
The campaign website was created in partnership with several charities, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s global initiative: United24. The aim of the campaign was to focus on the destruction of civilian areas and the consequent effect on the people of Ukraine, and to use this undeniable evidence to combat any misinformation about the conflict. Executive Creative Director at And Us, Jamie Kennaway, told The Drum: “There’s been quite a clear pattern of targeting civilian areas. We had the idea of bringing it to life in a way that people can explore and see in a visceral way.”
Of course with a campaign like this, getting the footage would be incredibly difficult. In part this was because “[Google], understandably, don’t want to show violence”. Fortunately, however, the agency were able to get in touch with a Google Street View executive, and through that connection managed to find someone on the ground in Ukraine who could get the images necessary to create ‘The Undeniable Street View’. After talks with Google, it was decided that “there’s a situation on the ground that people need to see.”
The dedicated campaign website provides users with a 360 degree view of six cities in Ukraine: Kyiv, Irpin, Chernihiv, Izyum, Kharkiv, and the Sumy region. Several streets in the different cities are shown, and in some locations users are able to switch between footage before the conflict and the current state of these cities. The Undeniable Street View website can be found here.