Breaking news tells you what happened. Vigil connects it to the map, the actors, the forces, the history and the economic consequences — so you can understand why it matters and what to watch next.
The module's baseline picture at launch: Pashinyan's party wins Armenia's June election but falls short of the supermajority the constitutional question needs; the TRIPP corridor moves from summit language to survey teams; Russia merges South Ossetia's administration into its own by treaty and installs a Moscow-career successor; Georgia's protest crisis grinds through its second year with EU accession still frozen; and Kadyrov's failing health makes Chechen succession the North Caucasus's live question.
Each item carries its own reporting window, sources and confidence grade.
Read the full briefWhat changed and why it matters — verified briefs with sources and confidence.
Where events and strategic systems sit on the ground.
Who the principal actors are, and how they align.
How forces, formations and equipment connect.
How the war transmits through trade, energy, industry and sanctions.
Ukraine–Russia is updated weekly. Mali, the Caucasus and Syria are updated when major developments are verified. Baseline reference pages are reviewed progressively — which is why the latest brief can come from any module.
Vigil currently covers 4 published conflict modules: Ukraine–Russia in Eastern Europe; Mali in Sahel / West Africa; Caucasus in South Caucasus / North Caucasus; Syria in Levant / Eastern Mediterranean. Full details in the coverage cards below.
Coverage orientation only — markers are approximate regional anchors for published modules, not conflict extents or current activity.
The largest interstate war in Europe since 1945, now an attritional contest of industrial capacity, manpower, and political endurance. Its outcome will set the price of territorial aggression for a generation — which is why capitals far from Kyiv treat it as a referendum on their own security.
Mali is an overlapping conflict system, not a two-sided war: jihadist insurgency, Azawad separatism, military rule, foreign security partnerships, regional competition, humanitarian crisis and economic stress, all running at once. There is no clean front line — the state holds the cities while the roads between them are contested by its enemies, and in 2026 both the north and the capital's approaches came under pressure at the same time.
Armenia–Azerbaijan, Georgia's breakaway regions, Chechnya, and the corridors reshaping Russia's southern frontier. The Caucasus is not one war: it is a linked regional security system in which unresolved conflicts, de facto states, Soviet-drawn borders, displacement, energy routes and the competing interests of Russia, Türkiye, Iran and the West all act on each other — and in which Russia's absorption in Ukraine has set the whole system moving at once.
Fourteen years of civil war ended the Assad era in December 2024 — and left a state to be rebuilt rather than a peace to be enjoyed. Syria today is a transition system: a transitional government in Damascus extending its authority over a fractured country, a Kurdish-led northeast negotiating the terms of its reintegration, Türkiye and Israel pressing security demands from north and south, Russia and Iran reduced but not gone, ISIS remnants in the desert, and more than half the population still displaced or in need. This module explains how the war's unresolved legacy structures everything that comes next.
Each module is a guided path through one conflict — its map, history, actors, forces and economics, cross-linked and sourced. Each opens with its own reading order.
Map key events actors Force Atlas economy latest weekly brief
Follow the conventional war, occupation, long-range strike campaign, force structure, equipment, and economic exposure.
Start with Ukraine–RussiaMap historical phases factions corridors and locations humanitarian/economy latest developments
Understand Mali as an overlapping conflict system shaped by insurgency, separatism, military rule, foreign security partnerships, corridors, gold, and humanitarian pressure.
Start with MaliOverview history map key events profiles economy and corridors latest developments
Understand the Caucasus as a regional security system: unresolved wars, de facto states, Soviet-drawn borders, corridors and the outside powers acting on all of them.
Start with the CaucasusOverview history map key events profiles economy and humanitarian latest developments
Understand Syria as a transition system: a state being rebuilt after the Assad era, a Kurdish-led northeast integrating on contested terms, Turkish and Israeli security pressure, and the displacement, sanctions and reconstruction files underneath it all.
Start with SyriaUnsure how to read our confidence grades, dates and sourcing? Start with the methodology.
Vigil does not try to win the breaking-news race. It prioritises verified, dated, cross-linked information; explicit uncertainty; transparent corrections; and broad, non-operational context. When reliable information is not available, Vigil says so.