Russia ramps up deportation, alters ethnic tapestry in occupied parts of Ukraine

Occupying Russian authorities are deporting Ukrainians from territories they control and are assimilating them into Russian society to where they forcibly send them, the National Resistance Center (NRC) reports. 

The occupiers indoctrinate fealty to the Kremlin in an ongoing pursuit of eradicating Ukrainian identity.  

“The Russian occupation authorities have created conditions that compel many residents of Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories to abandon their homes and relocate to Crimea or various regions of Russia,” the report states.  

Deported Ukrainians are placed in so-called “temporary accommodation centers,” where they are promised housing and food.  

“Yet, offering food and shelter to people whose homes were destroyed by Russian forces is the height of cynicism. The same occupiers who robbed these individuals of their homes, stability, and peaceful lives now attempt to mask their atrocities under the guise of ‘aid,’” the NRC said.  

None of the Kremlin’s so-called “benefits” come without strings attached – Russians use deported Ukrainians as tools for their own political and social gain.  

“[Russians] deliberately destroy any conditions that would allow these people to return home, trapping them in a state of dependence and uncertainty under the aggressor’s control,” the report states.  

The NRC stresses that the Kremlin’s actions are part of a deliberate policy of genocide and cultural erasure of Ukrainians.  

Meanwhile, Russian authorities continue their illegal efforts to change the Crimean Peninsula’s demographics by having veterans in the war against Ukraine re-settle there, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center reports.  

In 2024 alone, 1,600 Russian occupiers received land parcels on the Ukrainian peninsula. Russia has also expanded the list of those eligible for land plots.  

“Now, among the ‘recipients’ are members of private military companies and those who signed contracts with the Russian army in Crimea, even if they have no permanent [residential] registration there,” the statement reads.  

Activists stress that this Kremlin policy is yet another attempt to illegally cement its control over occupied territory and alter its population.