Russian Occupation Update, March 31, 2025

ISW - 31/03
Russian occupation authorities have intensified law enforcement activity in occupied areas of Ukraine since mid-March, likely in part due to Russian President Vladimir Putin's March 20 decree ordering Ukrainians living in occupied areas to obtain Russian

Russian Occupation Update, March 31, 2025

Author: Karolina Hird

Reporting period: March 17-March 30

Data cut-off: 10:45 am EST, March 30

ISW is introducing a new product line tracking activities in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. The occupation updates will examine Russian efforts to consolidate administrative control of annexed areas; forcibly integrate Ukrainian citizens into Russian sociocultural, economic, military, and governance systems. This product line is intended to replace the section of the Daily Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment covering activities in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. 

Read ISW's assessment on how Russian activities in occupied areas of Ukraine are part of a coerced Russification and ethnic cleansing campaign, click  here.

Key takeaways:

  • Russian occupation authorities have intensified law enforcement activity in occupied areas of Ukraine since mid-March.
  • Putin's March 20 decree, "On the Peculiarities of the Legal Status of Certain Categories of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons in the Russian Federation," likely accounts in part for the intensification of raids in occupied areas.
  • Russia continues efforts to indoctrinate Ukrainian children using civic youth-engagement and military-patriotic education programs.
  • Militarization of Ukrainian children also continues within occupied territories.
  • Russia continues to pursue logistics infrastructure projects in occupied Ukraine in order to maximize economic control over occupied territories.
  • Russian occupation authorities also continue efforts to incentivize Russian citizens to relocate to occupied Ukraine from Russia in a clear violation of international law.

Russian occupation authorities have intensified law enforcement activity in occupied areas of Ukraine since mid-March, likely in part due to Russian President Vladimir Putin's March 20 decree ordering Ukrainians living in occupied areas to obtain Russian citizenship or risk deport...
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