russian Occupiers Are Intensifying Propaganda and Militarization in the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine

russian forces continue to systemically integrate the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine into their structure, intensifying propaganda, forced militarization, and repressive measures. These actions are a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the occupying power from changing the civilian infrastructure and forcing the population to serve in the occupying armies.

In the temporarily occupied Berdyansk, russian occupiers have almost completed the construction of a 100-meter television tower. They plan to place equipment on it to broadcast three digital television multiplexes and 16 radio stations, which will spread exclusively russian propaganda content. The tower is scheduled to be put into operation in the first half of 2026, which will lead to even more aggressive pressure on local residents through control of the information space.

On the territory of the Azovstal metallurgical plant in temporarily occupied Mariupol, the occupiers plan to build a new military facility, which will be supplied with electricity from the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The russians are gradually connecting the destroyed plant to the power grid: a project has been approved to reconstruct two 110 kV power lines with a branch to the “Azovstal No. 7” substation. This is part of the occupiers’ new energy line – from the ZNPP through Volnovakha and Telmanovo deep into the rf’s territory. Large-scale restoration of residential buildings is out of the question; on the contrary, houses are being dismantled en masse. The occupying administration has decided to give people who have lost their homes “ownerless” apartments, i.e., those taken from residents who have left or died during the fighting.

The russians are also stepping up “passportization” and mobilization of the local population in the TOT. The rf’s Ministry of Internal Affairs’ migration service has issued over a million russian passports in the occupied Luhansk region, forcing local residents to obtain passports under threat of repression. Men with russian passports automatically become conscripts.

In the temporarily occupied territory of Kherson region, the occupiers are conducting illegal excavations with russian-style “permits” for these actions. The excavations are looting of Ukrainian values, an attempt to legalize the theft of historical heritage and rewrite history to suit their own agenda.

In temporarily occupied Melitopol, the occupiers are systematically spreading anti-Ukrainian propaganda among children. During graduation celebrations in kindergartens, they organized “competitions” that imitate military training. The repressive nature of the occupation and the lack of accountability for their actions is illustrated by a recent incident in the city: a prosecutor from St. Petersburg, while on “duty” in the occupation administration, killed a 15-year-old girl, the only child in the family. The perpetrator escaped punishment.

The millions of tourists promised to Crimea remained just promises. The repair of 5,400 km of roads around the Sea of Azov, significant social payments, and investments in industry also remained on paper. In reality, there is a shortage of medicines and goods, corruption at all levels, russification, deportations, propaganda, and decline.

Besides, in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, russians are blocking mobile communications, banning Ukrainian television, forcing entrepreneurs to replace Ukrainian signs with russian ones, sending students to “intern” at military factories, seizing property from local residents, failing to resolve humanitarian issues, and demanding that all school events be approved by the fsb...

These and other illegal actions testify to russia’s systemic strategy of russification and militarization of the occupied territories.