Editorial standards and fact-checking process at UkraineBorder.com

Ten editorial principles

1. Accuracy beats speed. If we're uncertain about a figure or rule, the article waits for verification; we don't publish «to be updated later».
2. Every number / date / threshold is from a specific regulatory act. Not «according to sources», but «Cabinet Resolution No. 1077 of 2022, Art. 8» with a link and effective date.
3. War-risk content — factual, no alarmism, no false reassurance. We cite Ukrainian state authorities + cross-perspective UK FCDO / US State / Auswärtiges Amt / Canada travel.gc.ca.
4. No coordinates of critical infrastructure or active military positions. A security gate before publishing any combat-zone material.
5. All prices via API, never hardcoded into text. Informational content does not cite specific policy amounts.
6. No strawman comparisons of specific insurers. Describing market categories — yes; «Allianz better/worse» — no.
7. AI-assisted creation is documented. Every AI draft passes through a human editorial gate before publication.
8. Corrections are openly logged. If we made a mistake, the fix goes into the Revision history.
9. No affiliate links or hidden commercial messages in informational content. B/C/D clusters carry no product endorsements; the insurance CTA is separately labelled after the FAQ.
10. No tracking pixels / scripts before cookie consent. A compliance gate before the first production deploy.

Research → draft → review → publication

Stage 1 — Research. The editor gathers current regulatory sources on the topic: legislative base (zakon.rada.gov.ua), Cabinet of Ministers resolutions (kmu.gov.ua), NBU orders (bank.gov.ua), letters from SMS/SCS/Ministry of Reintegration, relevant state registers. For war-risk content — additionally cross-perspective travel advisories (UK FCDO, US State Department, Auswärtiges Amt, Canada travel.gc.ca, MOFA Japan, etc.).

Stage 2 — AI-assisted draft. The first draft is generated via Claude by Anthropic based on the collected sources and an approved outline. This is documented under EU AI Act Article 50 transparency for general-purpose AI deployments. AI does not publish directly — it's a tool for the editorial team, not an autonomous author.

Stage 3 — Human editorial gate. The editor verifies: (a) every number/date/citation against the original regulatory act; (b) tone (factual, not alarmist); (c) compliance gates (insurance positioning, territorial exclusion phrasing, no hardcoded prices); (d) cross-link integrity; (e) for D-cluster — a security review (no coordinates, no false reassurance, no absolute claims). If any check fails, the piece returns to research or rewriting.

Stage 4 — Translation to 9 locales. AI generates a draft translation from the approved UK source; a native-speaker editor verifies terminology (especially legal and regulatory terms), per-locale calibration (per-passport visa rules, per-currency thresholds, per-jurisdiction regulator names), tone adaptation (formal EU vs less formal US English vs layered formal Japanese, etc.).

Stage 5 — Publication + log. The article is published with a last-updated date; substantive changes are logged in the article's revision log (format described in Revision policy).

Source hierarchy

Tier 1 (primary, mandatory): a Ukrainian regulatory act — Verkhovna Rada Law / Cabinet of Ministers Resolution / NBU-SMS-SCS-Ministry of Reintegration order, etc. We cite the number, effective date, and link.

Tier 2 (cross-perspective for D-cluster): official travel advisories of other countries — UK FCDO, US State, Auswärtiges Amt DE, France-Diplomatie, Canada travel.gc.ca, MOFA Japan, DFAT Australia, gob.es Spain.

Tier 3 (sectoral specialist): regulatory documents — the EU IDD text + GDPR article-by-article + NBU resolutions on insurance intermediaries.

Tier 4 (operational reference): the insurance partner's GTCP (§8 Acceptance англ. Brave file in the repo root), the internal internal partner-product reference documentation.

We do NOT use as authoritative: social media, Telegram channels, forums, travel-review aggregators, news outlets without attribution to an original source.

A detailed list of references — Sources.

Translation quality control

10 locales × 60 articles = 600 translations. The error risk is high, so:

• AI generation from the approved UK source — not a chained translation from another translation (which would cause drift).
• Native-speaker editor for terminology — legal and regulatory terms (e.g. «temporarily occupied territories», «authorised insurance agent», «data controller») are checked against the native-language equivalent.
• Per-locale calibration block — not only a faithful translation of the body, but also locale-aware references (CNIL for FR, AEPD for ES, BfDI for DE, NAIH for HU, ÚOOÚ for CZ + SK, ICO for UK readers, etc.).
• Translation errors are bugs, not subjective preference. Users report to editor@ukraineborder.com → fix within 5 business days → entry in Revision history.

Dual-use and war-risk content sensitivity

D-cluster (safety/wartime) has an additional compliance gate:

• No GPS coordinates of critical infrastructure, energy facilities, or military positions.
• No operational details about the logistics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or law enforcement.
• Relative phrasing rather than absolute — «the lowest-risk among regions» rather than «safe».
• Fresh state acts — the territorial exclusion list is updated by the Cabinet of Ministers; we don't cite outdated versions.
• A security editor performs an additional security review for D-cluster materials.

C-cluster (customs) carries a parallel dual-use requirement:

• No instructions for circumventing the export/import regulatory regime.
• We cite decree 64/2022 + Resolution 1807 as the authoritative permitting base, not as a starting point for a workaround.

Editorial independence from commercial interest

The risk in any integrated model (informational content + commercial channel in one legal entity) is that commercial interest influences editorial decisions. How we isolate them:

• Cluster URL isolation. B/C/D — information with no brand mentions; A + /insurance/quote — separately labelled commercial; E — no CTA.
• Insurance CTA after the FAQ, not in the body. B/C/D spokes have the CTA via the cluster prop in ArticleTemplate — a separately labelled block, not blended into the content.
• The editor writes reality, not a sales narrative. If insurance is not legally required for a particular type of trip — we say so.
• No false urgency. No «last hour for this rate» or «buy now».
• Disclosure is mandatory. Every page with a commercial CTA contains IDD Art. 17 identification of the distributor + nature of remuneration; details in Affiliate disclosure.

How to report an error

If you notice an inaccuracy — write to editor@ukraineborder.com with a link to the article and a specific description of the issue. We review within 5 business days and reply to you personally with the result. Fixes are added to the Revision history with the «User (editor@)» tag.

What we do not promise

Honestly:

• Not every article is verified every day. The fact-check cycle is 90/180/365 days by aging category (Revision policy).
• We don't monitor 24/7. Regulatory triggers are processed within 7 days of effective date.
• We don't guarantee simultaneity across 10 locales. UK first, others 2-5 days later.
• We don't cover market options we don't offer (e.g., insurance for US citizens with US-issued admitted insurance).

Cross-references

• Sources — complete list of authoritative references.
• Authors — editorial team (populated progressively).
• Revision policy — change log format, update triggers, AI disclosure.
• Contact — channels for reporting errors.
• About UkraineBorder.com — operator and mission.
• Affiliate disclosure — how commercial ties do not influence editorial decisions.