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Russia continues to use the mandatory “Conversations about the Important” program to propagate pro-Russian patriotic ideals amongst Ukrainian children. Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) Head Denis Pushilin claimed on September 26 that over 160 thousand school children and university students in occupied Donetsk Oblast participated in the mandatory extracurricular activity “Conversations about the Important.” Pushilin claimed that the program instructed Ukrainian children about Donetsk Oblast’s “path to reunification" with Russia following the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution and amplified several long-running false Russian narratives on Ukraine’s alleged discrimination against Russian-speakers living in Ukraine. Pushilin also noted that Russian veterans of the war in Ukraine spoke to children as part of the "Conversations" program, thereby further exposing Ukrainian children to pro-Russian militarized ideals. ISW previously reported that Russia systematically exposes children to Russian veterans in programs such as ”Align With Heroes” as part of the Kremlin’s effort to militarize Ukrainian children. ISW previously reported that the Russian Ministry of Education selected occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia oblasts to implement the “Conversations about the Important” program in kindergartens for children aged three to seven and seeks to teach children “moral qualities” and a “knowledge of history, respect for Russian culture, and love for the Motherland.” Pushilin’s claim on the scale of participation in the program highlights how many children are facing Russian indoctrination via school curricula in occupied Donetsk Oblast alone.
Russian occupation officials continue the seizure and redistribution of property assets in occupied Ukraine. The Kherson Oblast occupation administration announced on September 25 that Russia has expanded the list of Russian federal subjects that are able to submit documents for property registration in occupied Kherson Oblast to 15 Russian regions. Russian citizens are now able to apply to register ownership of various real estate items in occupied Kherson Oblast from outside the territory of occupied Kherson Oblast. While the new procedure ostensibly is intended to allow residents of occupied Kherson Oblast who have relocated to Russia the ability to manage their property extraterritorially, it will likely make it easier for Russian citizens to buy and sell stolen Ukrainian real estate.
Russia is trying to augment the population of occupied areas by incentivizing the massive resettlement of Russian expatriates to occupied areas, in part by redistributing stolen property to Russian citizens. ISW has long assessed that Russian efforts to seize and nationalize property in occupied Ukraine are part of the wider campaign to settle Russians in occupied areas and manipulate demographic realities to create the impression that occupied areas are inherently Russian. Occupied Mariupol is at the center of this effort. Koltsov gave an interview to Kremlin newswire TASS on September 30 to outline his “master plan” for the development of the occupied city, which includes efforts to substantially increase its population. Koltsov stated that his administration plans to increase the population from 330,000 to between 500,000 and 550,000 by 2028. The United Nations estimated that around 350,000 people of the pre-war population of about 430,000 fled during Russia’s invasion of the city, and up to 20,000 civilians likely died during Russia’s siege on the city in 2022. Koltsov’s claim that the current population is 330,000 is likely significantly inflated, and the only way that Russia could feasibly increase the population significantly within the next few years would be to resettle Mariupol with Russian citizens from Russia. Koltsov admitted that his administration is trying to attract investors to Mariupol to help with the population increase. Russian officials have previously used the promise of cheap and modern housing, often seized and nationalized from Ukrainians, to attract Russians to move to occupied Ukraine.
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