Correction: Updating Civilian Casualty Figures in the Ukraine Report of March 11, 2025
Why we corrected the civilian casualty count in the Donetsk region and what we changed in the reporting workflow.
Key takeaways
- The error came from a duplicate aggregation of a local report.
- The reporting system now applies additional checks for statistical updates.
- We notify partners and readers of corrections within 60 minutes.
What happened?
On March 11, we reported 37 civilian casualties in an attack on Kostyantynivka. The correct figure was 22 injured and 5 killed. The discrepancy happened because a local source reported the same incident twice with different numbers, and our automated system treated them as separate events.
How was the error found?
Later that evening, a community member flagged the inconsistency through our contact form. We also received an official statement from the regional administration. Within 45 minutes, we had traced the mismatch and updated the dataset.
What changes are we making?
We added a validation rule that raises alerts when conflicting numbers appear. Analysts now also receive a visual warning when two reports refer to the same place and time window. All partners receiving our data feeds were informed proactively.