What Ukraine War Archive does

Ukraine War Archive (UWA; Архів війни) is a non-profit, collaborative digital preservation platform founded in March 2022 by the Ukrainian organizations Docudays and Infoscope in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The platform creates a unified register of materials related to the war, combining secure archival infrastructure, metadata management, and controlled access for verified users. As of the latest disclosures the archive holds approximately 37 million downloaded media files, more than 88,000 in-house and partner materials, over 8,600 witness interviews, around 53.8 million files ingested from open sources, and 36,000+ registered events and potential war crimes, with 4,275+ channels monitored automatically.

The platform operates an integrated system spanning the Witness Testimony Programme (May 2022) for structured video interviews conducted under recognized documentation standards, an Open Source Monitoring pipeline for automated archiving of channels and social-media materials, a Partner Material Contribution System for structured ingestion from 27+ Ukrainian and international partners, and a closed Verified User Access layer (Google form application, User Agreement, reputational risk assessment). Materials are processed through tagging against 400+ keywords, classification under Article 8 of the Rome Statute, transcription, translation, metadata preservation, and verification procedures aligned with the Berkeley Protocol for digital open-source investigation. Supporting the core archive are the DOCU/SYNTHESIS Art Lab (2023, with Docudays UA) and documentary films produced from the archive's materials, including 'Witnesses. North of Kyiv' (2023) and 'Witnesses. Captivity Kills' (2024, Sheffield DocFest).

The business model is entirely non-commercial: the organization is funded through donations and grants from Ukrainian and international donors — including the governments of the UK, Canada, Netherlands, US, Finland, Switzerland, and Sweden, the EU (House of Europe), People in Need (SOS Ukraine), the Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, and Next Level Initiatives, among others. Access to the archive is free for verified investigators, journalists, documentary filmmakers, researchers, cultural practitioners, and human-rights organizations. The organization employs approximately 50 staff across ten functional departments (partnerships, data analysis, research, interviewing, communications, technical, operations, legal, fundraising, finance) and works with a broad network of Ukrainian and international partners under the leadership of Co-founder and Executive Director Maksym Demydenko and Program Director Roman Bondarchuk.

Name

Ukraine War Archive

Legal name

Ukraine War Archive (Архів війни)

Website

https://ukrainewararchive.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Ukraine War Archive is a Ukrainian non-profit digital preservation platform, founded in 2022, that archives, structures, and provides verified free access to multimedia materials documenting Russia's invasion of Ukraine for investigators, journalists, researchers, filmmakers, and human-rights organizations worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Archival & War Documentation Services

NAICS

Libraries and Archives (519210), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Long-Term Digital Preservation Services (Format Migration, Integrity Checks) (MPAHAGAD)

Keywords

• Digital archival preservation
• War crimes documentation
• Multimedia archive platform
• Open source investigation
• Human rights evidence

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations and Grant Funding: Non-profit organization funded through donations and grants from Ukrainian and international donors including governments, foundations, and civil society organizations. No commercial revenue model.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Ukraine War Archive is a non-profit collaborative digital preservation platform that creates a unified register of multimedia materials (video, photo, audio, text, witness testimonies, open-source content) related to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The platform applies archival methodology including tagging across 400+ keywords, Rome Statute Article 8 war crimes classification, transcription, translation, and verification, while providing secure, time-limited access to authorized investigators, journalists, documentary filmmakers, researchers, and cultural practitioners for accountability, research, and historical memory purposes.

Product overview

Ukraine War Archive (UWA) is a non-profit collaborative digital preservation platform that serves as the core archival infrastructure for documenting Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The platform operates as an integrated system combining secure archival infrastructure with partner contribution workflows, automated open-source monitoring, a witness testimony programme, and verified user access controls. Supporting the core platform are the DOCU/SYNTHESIS Art Lab (interdisciplinary cultural heritage programme) and Witness documentary films produced from archived materials. The archive processes and structures materials through tagging, transcription, translation, and verification workflows, making them available to authorized investigators, journalists, documentary filmmakers, and researchers while maintaining copyright ownership with content providers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Ukraine War Archive (UWA) Platform A non-profit collaborative digital preservation platform that creates a unified register of materials related to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, providing secure archival infrastructure, metadata management, structured processing workflows (tagging across 400+ keywords, transcription, translation, Rome Statute Article 8 war crimes classification), and controlled access to verified users for documentation, research, and historical preservation.
• Witness Testimony Programme A programme conducting detailed video and audio interviews with witnesses of war crimes, occupation, and Russian aggression in accordance with recognized international documentation standards and trauma-informed practices, preserving testimonies for future historical, research, and legal purposes. The programme has produced 8,600+ interviews to date.
• Partner Material Contribution System A system allowing partner organizations to securely upload, transfer, or submit materials with metadata structuring, access-level assignment, and tagging according to over 400 keywords and Rome Statute war crimes classifications. Partner organizations retain copyright over contributed materials.
• Verified User Access A closed, verified-only access system providing researchers, journalists, documentary filmmakers, and other authorized users with controlled access to archive materials for research purposes. Access is granted for the duration of the user's research project and can be extended. Materials are viewable only, with downloads considered on a case-by-case basis.
• DOCU/SYNTHESIS × UKRAINE WAR ARCHIVE Art Lab An interdisciplinary art lab dedicated to working with memory and preservation of cultural heritage, featuring installations, artworks, and creative projects created with archive materials from the Ukraine War Archive.
• Witnesses Documentary Films Documentary films produced by the Ukraine War Archive team based on collected testimonies, including 'Witnesses. North of Kyiv' (2023, documenting witnesses' experiences north of Kyiv) and 'Witnesses. Captivity Kills' (2024, about captivity and war crimes, premiered at Sheffield DocFest).

Quantifiable outcome

• 37 million+ downloaded media files preserved
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration9 records

AI capability5 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

19 partnerships are on record, tiered founding, core, international and supporting.

• DocudaysfoundingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2022Co-founder of the Ukraine War Archive alongside Infoscope in March 2022, established in response to the urgent need to preserve records of Russia's full-scale invasion. Docudays continues as a primary organizational partner.
• InfoscopefoundingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2022Co-founder of the Ukraine War Archive alongside Docudays in March 2022. Provides technological and methodological expertise for digital preservation infrastructure.
• Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights UnioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUkrainian human rights organization documenting war crimes and human rights violations. Partner in the documentation network.
• Truth HoundscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOrganization documenting war crimes and human rights violations through investigation and evidence collection.
• HromadskecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUkrainian independent media outlet providing documentation and media materials.
• SuspilnecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUkrainian Public Broadcasting providing access to documentation and media content.
• Bihus.InfocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUkrainian investigative journalism outlet providing documentation of war events.
• UkrainercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUkrainian media platform documenting wartime events and providing content.
• ZminacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUkrainian human rights media organization.
• CCL (Centre for Civil Liberties)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUkrainian human rights organization documenting human rights violations during the war.
• Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (HPG)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOrganization documenting human rights violations and war crimes.
• Svidok.orgcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPlatform for witness testimonies and documentation of war experiences.
• War Childhood MuseumcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMuseum documenting experiences of children during wartime.
• Holodomor MuseumcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMuseum providing documentation and historical preservation expertise.
• FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights)internationalStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational human rights federation providing global network and documentation support.
• KSE (Kyiv School of Economics)supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerUkrainian academic institution supporting the archive.
• Motherway (Madre)internationalStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational women's human rights organization providing support.
• PactinternationalStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational development organization supporting civil society.
• CAF AmericasupportingOthersProvides verification services for the archive's donor and organizational transparency.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG): Long-standing Ukrainian human rights organization documenting human rights violations and war crimes, a UWA partner. Comparable mission, geography, and documentation focus.
• WITNESS: Global human rights video organization focused on documentation, evidentiary standards, and advocacy. Highly comparable mission around video evidence preservation for accountability.
• Svidok.org: Ukrainian platform for witness testimonies and documentation of war experiences — a UWA partner. Directly comparable mission in testimonial collection for wartime human rights documentation.
• The Reckoning Project: Founded in 2022 to document potential international crimes in Ukraine using structured legal-grade testimony and visual evidence. Direct peer in scope (Ukraine war crimes), methodology, and institutional positioning.
• Truth Hounds: Ukrainian human rights organization documenting war crimes and human rights violations through investigation and evidence collection — actually a partner of UWA. Closely comparable mission, geography, and methodology.
• Mnemonic: Mnemonic operates the Syrian Archive and other conflict-related digital preservation initiatives, applying similar OSINT, archival methodology, and human rights documentation workflows to conflict zones. Highly comparable as a peer digital archive for accountability.
• Center for Civil Liberties (CCL): Ukrainian human rights organization (Nobel Peace Prize 2022) documenting human rights violations and war crimes in Ukraine. Direct peer and UWA partner operating in adjacent evidence-collection space.

Broad incumbents

• International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH): International federation coordinating human rights documentation and advocacy across 192+ member organizations. Actually a UWA partner; comparable in human rights documentation mission but operates at international federation scale.
• Yad Vashem: World Holocaust Remembrance Center — a globally recognized memorial, research, and documentation institution. Comparable as a long-duration conflict/mass-atrocity archive and memory institution, though operating at vastly greater scale and maturity.

Emerging players

• Bellingcat: Open-source investigations organization with significant Ukraine war documentation work, applying OSINT to war crimes investigations. Adjacent rather than identical — more investigation-led, less preservation-led.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ukrainewararchive

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles15 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ukraine War Archive