Executive Summary:
- Moscow’s latest reconstruction plans for the occupied territories of Ukraine are less about recovery and more about consolidating political and economic control.
- The Kremlin is developing an extractive occupation model focused on seizing property, exporting grain and other products, and exploiting critical minerals to support Russia’s wartime economy.
- Living conditions in the occupied territories continue to deteriorate, with shortages of electricity, gas, water, medicine, food, and basic municipal services becoming ever more common.
On March 17, Moscow announced new initiatives presented as an ambitious effort to rebuild critical infrastructure in the occupied territories of Ukraine, improve the lives of its residents, and attract nearly 10 million visitors annually (TASS, March 17). The Russian state corporation WebRF and the Unified Institute of Urban Planning announced 25 development projects for the occupied territories of Ukraine (Dan-news, March 17). By 2045, Moscow plans to increase the population in occupied territories by 114,000 Russian residents, construct more than five square miles of property, and develop new railways and healthcare infrastructure, while opening 225,000 jobs for Russians to carry out these projects (RBC Ukraine, March 17).
All these activities are part of the Kremlin’s efforts to alter the ethnic composition of occupied territories by increasing the number of Russian residents. The Kremlin has been actively recruiting doctors, teachers, public officials, and military families to the occupied territories by offering them higher pay, housing, and benefits, including access to services (Zmina, March 18). For example, in Mariupol, Donetsk oblast, there are already reportedly over 60,000 Russian residents, with alleged plans to increase the total number of Russians in occupied territories to as many as one million by 2045 (Suspilne, March 22).
These activities are also linked to the occupation authorities’ recent efforts to transfer land, property, and mineral development rights to Russians and Russian-owned entities. The Kremlin allegedly allocated $11.8 billion for the development of the occupied territories of Ukraine for 2024–2026—three times the combined financing of 20 Russian regions—but this funding appears to be directed toward integration, logistics, and mineral extraction rather than civilian recovery (24 Сhannel, March 27). Since 2023, Moscow has allocated $425 million to construct and maintain the railway network in the occupied territories, while also expanding the road network to more than 6,350 kilometers (about 3,946 miles) (President of Russia, September 30, 2025). Russian President Vladimir Putin framed this as part of a large-scale program of socio-economic development and the revival of historical Russian lands (Vedomosti, June 30, 2025; Argumenti i Fakty, March 18). In practice, however, these investments support a methodical process of constructing an extractive occupation model aimed at exporting energy, minerals, wheat, and other products to Russia and other countries via the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk (Suspilne, January 12). In 2025 alone, Russia illegally exported over two million tons of wheat from occupied territories, transporting it to international markets through its shadow fleet at ports in the Black and Azov seas (UATV Freedom, January 17).
Moscow is also actively pursuing large-scale exploitation of subsoil resources in the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. The Kremlin sees Ukrainian deposits of strategic and rare metals as a resource base to support its wartime economy and compensate for losses in the energy sector (UATV Freedom, January 17). For instance, in April, Russian geologists completed a detailed study of the Nagolny Ridge in the Rovenkivskyi district, Luhansk oblast, and occupation authorities have intensified preparations for industrial mining of copper and zinc (Korrespondent, April 5). In January, Alchevskpromgroup received licenses to explore and produce copper, zinc, gold, and silver in Luhansk oblast (National Resistance Center, April 5).
Civilian infrastructure and public welfare in the occupied territories continue to deteriorate. Local occupation authorities have completely neglected the development and maintenance of critical infrastructure and have continued systematic oppression and coercion against residents. There have been numerous challenges reported across the healthcare, energy, food, and water sectors, with local authorities often exacerbating rather than resolving them. Residents in occupied Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk oblasts are currently being cut off from water and gas and are experiencing difficulties accessing utilities, especially electricity, with extended power outages lasting up to nine hours (V-Variant, April 23). Since March, there have also been issues with the water supply across many towns in Zaporizhzhia oblast. There is often limited access to water, and the water available is often polluted (Telegraf, April 5). These utilities are furthermore unlikely to become consistently accessible in the near future. Occupation authorities often cut access to these services without warning or clear restoration deadlines, and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has led to the degradation of vital infrastructure, making any restoration unlikely.
Conditions have reached the level of a humanitarian catastrophe in some areas. For example, the situation in Oleshki, a town of 2,000 in occupied Kherson oblast, reached a particularly dire state in April (Hromadske, April 28). Supplies of food, medicine, animal feed, fuel, gas, and other critical products have substantially worsened since December 2025, while occupation authorities have failed to ensure regular provisions (Glavcom, April 29).
Occupation authorities have also undertaken steps to deliberately shut down internet connectivity in preparation for introducing Russian-controlled networks. This is a deliberate strategy to cut off occupied territories from access to Ukrainian and Western sources with the intention to control and filter information and impose Russian propaganda via television, media, and Russian-controlled messenger applications such as Max. Since March, there have been increasing challenges accessing and using Telegram and WhatsApp, as Moscow prepares for a complete ban. In addition, numerous towns in the occupied Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts lack consistent internet access (Ukrainska Pravda, March 31). Since 2025, Moscow has been forcing residents in the occupied territories to install Max—available only on Russian and Belarusian SIM cards—and restricting their ability to receive and transmit information outside the Russian-controlled digital environment (Texty, August 8, 2025; Zmina, November 27, 2025). Since September 1, 2025, Max has reportedly been pre-installed on all phones sold in the occupied territories, gathering users’ personal data and being used by Moscow to control information.
Housing insecurity has also become more prevalent. In April, Moscow issued a new decree requiring real estate registered under Ukrainian law to be re-registered in accordance with Russian law by July 1. This would allow Russia to either force Ukrainians to take up Russian citizenship or seize their property, as the so-called re-registration can only be done in person and requires a Russian passport (Zmina, April 14).
Moscow’s policy in the occupied territories of Ukraine is built around coercion, extraction, and demographic change. The Kremlin is actively investing in extractive infrastructure to support resource exports, military logistics, and political control, while neglecting maintenance and modernization of critical energy, heating, and utilities systems. This situation has led to deteriorating living conditions, repeated utility shortages, and growing humanitarian risks. The gap between the Kremlin’s reconstruction narrative and the reality on the ground demonstrates Moscow’s ultimate objective of exploiting resources, populating the occupied territories with Russian citizens, and making future reintegration with Ukraine virtually impossible.
The post Russia Rebuilding Occupied Ukraine for Extraction appeared first on Jamestown.