Moscow Plans to Colonize Occupied Ukraine With 5 Million People

Russia is reportedly planning to resettle more than 5 million people – likely from within Russia – in occupied Ukrainian territories by 2030.

The plan was reportedly discussed in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don during a forum called “Integration-2025” on April 4 on incorporating occupied Ukrainian territories.

Petro Andryushchenko, Ukraine’s Mariupol mayor advisor, said the colonization plan was discussed at the event but questioned its viability, noting that the current population – in optimistic estimations – is less than 5 million.

“For example, they expect to increase the number of people in the occupied territories (excluding Crimea) to 10 million people by 2030. Today, the real number does not reach 5 million with a big advance and stretch,” Andryushchenko said in a Sunday Telegram update.

Andryushchenko also voiced his belief that Moscow would resettle the area by bringing Russians from within Russia.

“Where will they get more than 5 million? That’s right – they will bring them from Russia,” he added.

Due to labor shortages, Moscow has also relied on Central Asian workers to help rebuild the war-torn territories under Russian occupation and, at times, forced them to serve on the front line.

In his update, Andryushchenko also questioned Russian proxy officials’ claims on Mariupol’s population.

Other Topics of Interest

Ukraine Says Strikes on Russia’s Shadow Fleet Are Legal

Kyiv told the International Maritime Organization that tankers transporting Russian oil and gas directly finance Moscow’s war effort and may therefore constitute legitimate military targets.

“The Mariupol highlighter continues to add the number of people who have returned. According to his ‘data,’ 329,000 Mariupol residents have returned to Mariupol [note, he emphasizes this – returned]. I don’t even ask where so many live because this is almost as many as the adult population of Mariupol in 2014,” Andryushchenko said.

In late November, Andryushchenko told Kyiv Post that an estimated 130,000 Ukrainians had returned to their homes in the Russian-occupied Donbas territories in 2023 due to the difficulties of living as internally displaced persons in Kyiv-controlled territories.

He said that an even higher number – some 200,000 – were rejected by Russia upon entering the country on their way back to the occupied territories.

In his update, Andryushchenko also mentioned that local occupation authorities have thus far only recognized 600 apartments as ownerless in their attempts to confiscate the places for re-settlers, further questioning the occupation officials’ estimations.

In January, residents in Mariupol – now under Russian occupation – appealed to Russian leader Vladimir Putin for housing after their houses were destroyed during the fighting in 2022, and the occupying authorities announced that no more compensatory housing would be built.

In late 2022, Russia announced the annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions after holding what it called referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine. Kyiv and Western governments said the votes breached international law and ruled them as illegitimate and non-representative.

At present, Russia controls almost the entirety of Ukraine’s Luhansk region and the majority of the Donetsk region.

Moscow has ruled out the cessation of hostilities along the contact lines and vowed to capture all four regions in recent comments.