Putin Repopulating Captured Ukraine Territories with Russians?

Russia is waging a systematic campaign to depopulate its Ukrainian districts, according to an investigation by the Institute for the Study of War. The research also reveals that Russia is aggressively promoting the relocation of Russian residents to certain regions of annexed Ukraine.

A systemic destruction of Ukraine’s national identity

Hanna Maliar, the deputy defence minister for Ukraine, claimed on Wednesday that a large population transfer from remote and underdeveloped regions of Russia to Ukraine is taking place, particularly in the seized eastern Luhansk region. She further charged that Russia had forced Ukrainian nationals to leave their country and resettle in Russia.

She disclosed that native Ukrainian residents were frequently accused of supporting pro-Ukrainian positions and were therefore removed, whilst Russian newcomers in the seized regions of Ukraine were given financial assistance, housing, and employment prospects.

According to her, the enemy wants to destroy Ukraine’s sovereignty and the national identity of its people in the currently occupied Ukrainian territory. She added that the invading country is trying to change the ethnic composition of the local population in the territories it has conquered.

Kyiv has been steadfast in its position that it would not begin peace talks until all Russian soldiers have left Ukraine’s lands, including the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has consistently denied the Ukrainian people’s national identity and questioned their ability to rule themselves.

Findings of ISW

The American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) indicated on Wednesday that Moscow’s objective might be to further integrate the seized territory with Russia on a social, political, and economic level. The process of reintegrating these regions into Ukraine might be made more difficult by this strategy.

The Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was allegedly violated by the depopulation and repopulation campaign, according to the ISW. The research group claims that in 2022, Russian officials who executed this campaign there controlled the southern Kherson region of occupied Ukraine. Despite leaving Kherson in November 2022, Russian forces continue to control a sizable section of the area.

According to Ukrainian sources, in October 2022, Russian forces transported Ukrainian civilians to Russia in the seized Kherson region on the pretext of humanitarian evacuations and replaced them with Russian soldiers. British defence officials claimed that Russian troops pressured locals to apply for Russian Federation passports. The Kherson area of occupied Ukraine was being pressured by Moscow’s officials, according to the UK Ministry of Defence, to obtain Russian passports by June or face deportation and property confiscation. Before the large-scale invasion, Russia had previously used a “Russification” strategy in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.