- The Russian authorities have been directed to build Russian identity and increase the use of the Russian language in the territory it illegally occupies in Ukraine, according to a decree signed by Russian President Putin, published on 25 November 2025.
- The document, titled ‘Strategy of Russia’s national policy in the period to 2036, highlights a continued Russification policy, forcing Russian language, identity and culture on to the residents of sovereign Ukrainian territory. The policy forms part of Russia’s longstanding efforts to extirpate Ukrainian culture and identity, and delegitimise Ukrainian statehood.
- Russia now defines both occupied and unoccupied Ukrainian territory in the Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, as well as Crimea, as being part of the Russian Federation. This directly contradicts Russia’s own formal recognition of Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
- The document’s reference to these sovereign Ukrainian oblasts as ‘historical territories of the Russian state emphasises the overtly imperialist aspect of Russia’s continuing efforts to subjugate Ukraine.