West to east across the country
Detections per 1,000 km² between 47°N and 49°N, one degree of longitude at a time.
- 29-30°E24.5
- 30-31°E39.0
- 31-32°E27.8
- 32-33°E22.7
- 33-34°E128.0
- 34-35°E135.2
- 35-36°E243.7
- 36-37°E324.4
- 37-38°E568.5
- 38-39°E301.8
- 39-40°E63.9
- 40-41°E17.3
detections per 1,000 km²
How to read this
Density rises, peaks, then falls away again on the eastern side. That shape is the point. If dry weather or a later harvest in the east explained these fires, the line would climb steadily eastward and stay high across the border. Instead it forms a band with falling edges, which weather and farming do not produce.
Why compare against farmland
Ukraine burns every August: this is harvest season and stubble fires are ordinary. So the question is never whether fires exist, it is whether there are more of them than the same kind of land is producing elsewhere. We publish those reference areas, and the figure for each one, so a disagreement between them is visible rather than hidden.
- vinnytsia2.3detections per 1,000 km²
- poltava4.2detections per 1,000 km²
- kirovohrad4.1detections per 1,000 km²
The only claim we make
This area is burning far more than comparable land nearby, at the same moment, in the same season and the same country. That is measurable, and you can check it yourself.
The claim we never make
We never say what caused any individual fire, or who was responsible for it. A satellite records that something hot happened. It records nothing at all about why.