Every claim checked the same way, whoever makes it.

Confirmed, reported, disputed

Independence is counted on distinct origins, not outlets. Two papers quoting the same post are one origin. A source counts as tied to no party only when we have classed it that way for that date; an unclassed source never counts as independent. A party's own word counts toward confirmation only when it is not a claim of success: a claim to have taken ground needs independent origins. Analysts' assessments, such as the Institute for the Study of War's, are shown with their source but never count as evidence.

What was said is not what happened

Every party's claim is a statement: attributed, dated and counted, never stated as fact until independent evidence backs it. That covers the US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Ukraine and every armed group. No side's operation names or loaded terms become our words. Where a government tells its own public one thing and the world another, both statements are recorded and paired.

Checkable claims go into the claims ledger. A claim is a statement of fact that later evidence can support or contradict: results a party says it achieved, the losses it says it inflicted (including its figures for the other side's losses), its denials of responsibility, and specific assertions about events. Positions, threats, intentions, forecasts and opinions stay statements only. An admission against the speaker's own interest goes in the event record, and a party's count of its own dead goes in the toll.

Claims are rechecked at 7 days, 30 days and then quarterly from the day they were said, and whenever a linked event changes status. A verdict needs the same evidence as a confirmed event: two distinct origins with one tied to no party, or verified imagery or sensor data. The claimant's own word never counts. A claim still open after 12 months becomes unresolvable. Each party's track record counts a government with its forces and agencies as one party, names the bodies that spoke for it, and shows its denominator.

The toll

Each casualty or displacement figure is a counting body's own, with its exact scope: who, where, how counted, and as of when. Figures from different bodies, sides or scopes are never added together. A government's count of its own people is one count among others, with its own reasons to be high or low, and is never taken as the answer. One side's figure for the other side's losses is not a toll figure at all: it is a claim, recorded in the claims ledger and checked as evidence comes in. Where counts disagree, the spread between them is the finding; full figures may only be known long after the fighting. A figure changes only when its body publishes a new one, and the old one stays in the history.

People first

Civilian harm, displacement, food, water, power, health care and aid access lead each war's pages. The military picture is there to explain what is happening to people.

What we never publish

• Live or near-live movement, or the current positions of units, vehicles, air defences or weapons. Military events are placed no finer than a town or district, except attacks on known fixed sites such as bases, ports, airfields and refineries once reported.
• Any military event within 6 hours of when it happened.
• Strike results on Ukrainian military or critical sites before an official statement, or precise impact locations in Israel.
• How to build, use or defeat a weapon or a defence. We explain what is used and why it matters, never how.
• The name of a private person as a suspect, unless a court or prosecutor has named them publicly. No personal data on prisoners of war, the wounded or their families. No lists of individuals.

Sanctioned and designated outlets

Outlets such as RT, Sputnik, Press TV, Al-Masirah and Al-Manar are named, linked and quoted briefly, with attribution. We never embed, host, mirror or archive their material. Their statements are a party's statements.

Analysis

Analysis is labelled and kept apart from the record. Before publication it is read from each party's point of view and rewritten until each could call it fair. Domestic politics is explained where it shapes decisions, never taken up.

No silent changes

Every change to a record's status, place, attribution or harm is logged with the time, the reason and the source that justified it, and its revision number goes up. Records are never deleted: a wrong one is marked withdrawn or merged, and stays visible. See corrections.