Extraction

Wealth extraction, property confiscation, and living in the occupied territories

Russian propaganda presents a neat and tidy story of occupation. At home, the Kremlin tells Russians that the occupied territories were always Russian, that Ukrainian ownership was an illegitimate blip in history. In the occupied territories themselves, the message is that life is better now under Russian rule—shiny new buildings, restored infrastructure, a return to “normality.” And for Western audiences, the message is even simpler: nothing to see here. The people were always Russian, they are Russian now, and everything has settled into peaceful routine.

This narrative is insidious—not just because it is false, but because it shapes international perceptions of the war. I’ve written many times against the myth that there is no resistance in occupied Ukraine. In reality, resistance is widespread, violent, and highly creative. If Russians resisted Putin’s rule on the same scale that Ukrainians resist occupation, there would certainly be more media coverage. But perhaps not a huge amount more. In the West, we prefer to romanticise protest as a spectacle—artistic defiance, dramatic arrests—rather than political action that truly changes things. This preference for performance over impact is one reason why violent resistance in both occupied Ukraine and Russia is largely ignored.

But beyond the issue of resistance, the broader myth of Russian “normality” is deeply damaging. It obscures what the occupation actually is: not a project of governance, but of genocide, wealth extraction, and militarisation. Russia is not there to build new amenities, provide for people, or create stability. It is there to erase Ukrainian identity, loot resources, establish patronage networks for collaborators, and turn Ukrainian land into a buffer zone for future wars.

Together with my research assistant, Illia Riepin—a writer and PhD candidate originally from Mariupol—I want to start making these reports a regular feature. We will document the failures of Russian occupation, not just for the sake of recording them, but to understand what these failures reveal about the Kremlin’s real aims.

Infrastructure: Decay and Corruption

Russia’s inability—or refusal—to provide basic infrastructure is one of the starkest signs of its failure as an occupying force. In Donetsk, people don’t even have enough water to flush their toilets. Residents have been sharing online their lifehacks for dealing with this, with one just throwing his waste outside into the courtyard in plastic bags. This is the same Donetsk that hosted the Euros in 2012. The same Donetsk where Beyoncé performed. Proud Donetsk with its once tidy streets and a once hopeful future.

Euro 2012 exhibition at the Kharkiv Palace Hotel. This picture is from 2023. The hotel has since been bombed and is partially destroyed.

The water crisis is not unique to Donetsk. Across occupied territories, essential services are collapsing. This week, parts of Crimea were left on the verge of a total heating collapse due to burst pipes—pipes that remain unfixed because of underfunding and a lack of skilled workers. Over 700 kilometres of heating networks in Crimea are in urgent need of repair. Money is sometimes allocated but it then disappears into corruption schemes, never to be seen again – or at least not in the form of a public service or good. Indeed, any money made off the occupation – and there is a lot of it – goes to Russia or its friends, including China, which is receiving stolen granite aggregate from Donetsk region in return for supplies to Karanskii Karer LLC, owned by Russian ‘businessman’ Vadim Morozov. This isn’t the first or only example of China stealing Ukraine’s natural and mineral wealth. Perhaps the White House should hurry up before China takes all the best bits…

In Mariupol, the occupation administration recently announced its supposed achievements in rebuilding the city. But even their own numbers tell a different story. Officials claim to have built 64 new apartment buildings, offering 4,778 compensation apartments for those whose homes were destroyed. Yet 800 promised apartments from 2023 have never materialised. Some have been quietly gobbled up by the Russian occupation authorities and security forces. Others have been removed from the compensation list and placed in the mortgage system, meaning that displaced residents must now pay for what they were promised as compensation.

Meanwhile, the real scale of destruction in Mariupol remains staggering. Around 530 high-rise buildings, containing 37,000 apartments, have been demolished since 2022. So, in reality, Russia has replaced fewer than 15% of the homes they destroyed in the first place.

Even for those with a roof over their heads, there are few prospects. Officially, Mariupol has 56,355 employed residents—just 17% of the population. There are over 10,000 registered businesses, but the average number of employees per company is just five. Most of these businesses are small shops or market stalls. The city’s industrial sector – Azovstal - is effectively dead. Yet the local Employment Centre has only 3,703 people registered as jobless. The numbers don’t add up: either there are far fewer people in Mariupol than is claimed, people are not registering, or the employment centre’s numbers, as usual, are nonsense.

What is clear is that Mariupol is not being rebuilt. It is being stripped bare, left without homes, jobs, or a future. The city is a symbol of Russian destruction and propaganda. As befitting for a city marked by Empress Catherine I, it is a Potemkin.

Forced Mobilisation and Repression

While the occupation authorities apparently lack the resources to repair infrastructure, they have no trouble finding money for repression. In the past week alone, new checkpoints have been set up on the borders of occupied Luhansk region, staffed by Russian military police and the National Guard (FSVNG). Officially, these checkpoints are for “security” and to “monitor movement of goods.” In reality, they exist to hunt down men of conscription age, detain them, and send them to the front with no training and barely any equipment.

Alongside forced mobilization, the Russian occupation administration has now formally legalised the redistribution of confiscated Ukrainian homes in Luhansk. Under the new system, according to the local occupation authorities:

• 35% of stolen housing will go to the Russian federal government.

• 30% will be controlled by the so-called “Luhansk People’s Republic” administration.

• 35% will be handed to local occupation officials.

This isn’t just theft—it’s also about demographic engineering and ethnic cleansing. A recent report by the Eastern Human Rights Group, titled Confiscation, documents in detail how Russians seize homes and businesses from anyone suspected of patriotic (i.e. pro-Ukrainian) views. Some displaced residents have even risked returning from occupation to occupied areas, through the purgatory of filtration, in order to reclaim their homes—only to be denied or forcibly expelled again.

Education as a Weapon

While adults face forced mobilization and repression, children are being systematically indoctrinated. In Skadovsk, kindergartners were subjected to a lesson called Our Beloved Army, where they were made to draw pictures of Russian soldiers and military vehicles. Schools have been stripped of the Ukrainian language and curriculum, replaced with Russian nationalist propaganda. In Mariupol, occupation authorities have turned schools into indoctrination centres (e.g. ‘Model School No 34’). Russian soldiers—who bombed the city and killed the children’s playmates two years ago—now visit schools as honoured guests, presented as liberators.

In Kherson, Russia has ramped up recruitment of Ukrainian children into Yunarmiya, a paramilitary organization training children for future military service. In Henichesk, occupation forces recently held a “masterclass” at School No. 3, where students were taught how to assemble and disassemble Kalashnikov rifles. Schools are pressuring children to join, while parents who resist face threats—including the risk of having their children taken away, disappeared into Russia (together with Anastasia Romaniuk of Opora, I have just finished an academic article with research into this topic and will share here once it is out).

These children are being raised to be the next generation of cannon fodder. Anyone advocating for peace should ask themselves: if Russia is planning for, or even open to, peace, why is it preparing children for war on such an industrialised scale?

The Fate of Collaborators

Residents of the occupied territories live their lives at the whim of the occupation authorities. Even those who willingly collaborate with Russia to inflict misery on their neighbours are not safe. Over the past few weeks, Moscow has intensified efforts to purge local officials from occupation administration structures. At least six high-ranking collaborators have been dismissed, and a further twelve arrested or placed under investigation. This is part of a broader process of replacing local collaborators with Russians. It serves two purposes: eliminating potential defectors and advancing the Kremlin’s long-term strategy of settler colonialism and demographic engineering. Mariupol’s local workforce is being replaced with Russian settlers. Occupation police and security services are being purged of locals and staffed with Russians.

The Kremlin’s message is clear: Ukrainian collaborators are useful only for as long as they are needed. Once their purpose is served, they are disposable. Ukrainians are second-rate Russians, in their view. And it isn’t as if they even treat ‘first-rate Russians’ all that humanely anyway.

In summary, this is what Russian “normality” looks like in occupied Ukraine. Ruined cities, stolen homes, the systematic erasure of Ukrainian identity. Not peace, not stability—just occupation, repression and extraction that benefits the occupiers and their friends. I find the discussion of using Ukraine’s mineral wealth in exchange for US military support morally grim. But perhaps it is just a choice: do Russia (and China) take it, or does the US?

Jade McGlynn and Illia Repin

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