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Ukrainian experts confirmed that Russia has forcibly removed and deported upwards of 11,000 Ukrainian children to re-education camps so far in 2025, although Russian officials’ own statements suggest the numbers could be even higher. Ksenia Kornienko, a lawyer at the Ukrainian Regional Human Rights Center, stated on September 11 that Ukraine has recorded nearly 11,000 cases of Russia’s forced removal or deportation of Ukrainian children to 164 institutions throughout occupied Ukraine and Russia. Kateryna Rashevska, another lawyer at the Regional Human Rights Center, reported that the re-education camps to which Russia is taking Ukrainian children are becoming increasingly militarized. ISW recently reported that Russian officials provided updates on the number of Ukrainian children who attended such re-education camps in the recent summer months. Russian Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov stated that over 32,000 children from occupied Donetsk Oblast alone attended Russian summer programs — many of which ISW and other organizations assess are explicitly intended to re-educate Ukrainian children. The scale on which these forced removals and deportations are occurring is staggering and continues to be a fundamental part of Russia’s occupation strategy for Ukraine.
Russia concluded another round of staged elections in occupied Crimea as part of its wider campaign to shroud the illegal occupation of Ukraine in the guise of legitimacy. Incumbent Sevastopol occupation governor Mikhail Razvozhaev once again “won” his gubernatorial seat during the Russian September 12-14 regional and local voting period. Russian media claimed that Razvozhaev obtained 81.72 percent of the vote. ISW forecast on September 8 that Razvozhaev was likely to once again win the election, further cementing the supremacy of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party in occupied Ukraine. Russia has routinely used instances of legal theater, such as staged elections and manufactured referenda, to create the impression of popular buy-in for the occupation since the 2014 invasion of Ukraine. A Ukrainian partisan group reported on September 15 that despite the Sevastopol occupation administration’s claims that there was wide grassroots participation in the September 12-14 elections, over 52,000 residents did not vote (about nine percent of the total population according to Russian census statistics for 2025), and polling stations stayed empty for most of the three-day voting period. The European Union and Ukraine both condemned the recent Sevastopol elections, referring to them as illegal.
Russia continues to funnel investment into infrastructure and development programs in occupied Ukraine in order to maximize the profit of its occupation. Kherson Oblast occupation senator Igor Kastyukevich stated in an interview with Kremlin newswire TASS on September 13 that Russia will allocate about 940 billion rubles ($11 billion) to occupied Ukraine under the Russian federal framework “Recovery and socioeconomic development of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia oblasts” in 2025-2027. The Russian government approved this framework in December 2023 and has since used it to facilitate construction and development projects in occupied areas that allow Russia to reap economic benefits from its occupation of these areas. Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Anton Alikhanov met on September 15 with Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) Head Denis Pushilin and reported that Russia intends to invest additional resources in 2026 to develop and restore industrial and technological enterprises in occupied Donetsk Oblast. Pushilin noted during the meeting that his administration also intends to divide the territory of the Azovstal and Azovelektrostal factories in occupied Mariupol and transfer parts of these factories to Russian investors to create a future industrial park.
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