Is Putin planning to repopulate his annexed territories with Russians?

On April 26th, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Defense accused Russia of trying to destroy her country’s national identity through the forced repopulation of the occupied territories. 

Hanna Maliar explained that Moscow was attempting to “change the ethnic population of the temporarily occupied territories” and was offering a host of incentives to settlers. 

Luhansk was the most affected region and Maliar claimed Russia was taking various nationalities from its poorest and most remote regions and resettling them in Ukraine. 

Maliar also said those moving to former Ukrainian land were given immediate shelter as well as stable employment and loans for purchasing new housing and developing businesses.

"In this way, the enemy seeks to destroy Ukrainian statehood and the national self-identity of society in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories." Maliar wrote.

Maliar also noted that Moscow was deporting local residents from the Ukrainian territory it now controlled and was resettling those people somewhere in the Russian Federation. 

While it's always difficult to parse propaganda from reality when dealing with statements from either side in the conflict, Maliar's claims do seem to have some truth behind them. 

Just two days after Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Defense made her claims, Vladimir Putin signed a decree that gave Ukranians still living in formerly Ukrainian territory a path to Russian citizenship, but that path also came with a major catch according to Reuters.

Anyone in the occupied territories who declined to adopt Russian citizenship, or refused to legalize their status, would most likely be deported noted Reuters—which lends credence to the claim that pro-Ukrainian sympathizers are the target of Moscow’s ire. 

Those living in Ukraine’s occupied territories would have until July 1st to adopt Russian citizenship or legalize their status, after which they would be considered foreign citizens.

Reuters also noted that there was special language in the decree that would allow the Russian government to deport anyone from the four annexed regions that it found to be “a threat to national security or take part in unauthorized meetings.”

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) agreed with Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar's assessment that Moscow was likely continuing its policy of depopulation in the territories that it controlled in order to resettle those areas with Russians.

“Russia may hope to import Russians to fill depopulated areas of Ukraine in order to further integrate occupied areas,” the American think tank wrote in its April 26th update. 

ISW analysts added that the integration of Russia’s four annexed regions “socially, administratively, politically, and economically” could make it difficult for Ukraine to reintegrate them into the country, assuming they were successful in recapturing them. 

Knowing just how many Ukrainian citizens have been deported since the start of the war is difficult, but estimates range from 900,000 to 1.6 million according to statements made by the U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield in September 2022. 

In 2021, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said that more than 600,000 Russians moved to the Crimean Peninsula in the years after it was annexed according to The Kyiv Independent,  so it could be expected that thousands would flood to Russia's newly occupied territories as the war drags on.