Authors: Eloise Herdegen, Veronica Iredale, and Paul Conroy, with Karolina Hird
Information lower off: 12:30 pm ET, August 20
ISW’s Russian Occupation Replace tracks the actions that happen within the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. The occupation updates will look at Russian efforts to consolidate administrative management of annexed areas and forcibly combine Ukrainian residents into Russian sociocultural, financial, army, and governance techniques. This product line replaces the part of the each day Russian Offensive Marketing campaign Evaluation overlaying actions in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
To learn ISW’s evaluation of how Russian actions in occupied areas of Ukraine are a part of a coerced Russification and ethnic cleaning marketing campaign, click on here.
NOTE: ISW might be briefly decreasing the publication cadence of the Russian Occupation Replace to a once-weekly product and can publish the subsequent replace on August 28.
Key Takeaways:
- Russian occupation authorities are introducing new restrictions on communications in occupied Ukraine whereas persevering with to impose the usage of the Russian-controlled MAX messaging software program.
- Russian occupation authorities proceed to violate the Geneva Conventions by forcibly mobilizing residents of occupied Ukraine into the Russian Armed Forces.
- The Kremlin-controlled Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) continues to extend its affect on youngsters and youth in occupied Crimea through the use of religious and academic actions as a device for indoctrination and militarization.
- The Russian “Serving to Ours” Basis expanded its operations to occupied Kherson Oblast and facilitated the deportation of an unspecified variety of Ukrainian youngsters to a Russian government-controlled medical facility in Moscow Oblast.
- Russia continues to make use of Ukrainian youth from the occupied territories for improvement and reconstruction applications each in Russia and occupied Ukraine.
- Russian occupation officers proceed to coach Ukrainian youngsters to change into drone operators for future service within the Russian army or the Russian protection industrial base.
Russian occupation authorities are introducing new restrictions on communications in occupied Ukraine whereas persevering with to impose the usage of the Russian-controlled MAX messaging software program. Russian journalist Anastasia Kashevarova reported on August 11 that Russian cell operators requested the Russian authorities to start blocking video and audio calls on overseas messengers starting on August 1.[1] The Ukrainian Resistance Heart reported on August 13 that WhatsApp customers in each occupied Ukraine and Russia are reporting unstable connection or lack of entry to WhatsApp communications.[2] The Ukrainian Resistance Heart famous that Russian officers have beforehand proposed limiting WhatsApp below the allegation that web calls end in income losses for cell operators. Residents of occupied Melitopol, Zaporizhia Oblast are reportedly unable to contact individuals outdoors of occupied Ukraine utilizing WhatsApp or Telegram video and audio calls.[3] A Ukrainian official reported on August 15 that Russian occupation authorities blocked WhatsApp and Telegram in occupied Zaporizhia Oblast.[4] Ukrainian Luhansk Oblast Army Administration Head Oleksiy Kharchenko reported on August 13 that it’s unimaginable to make video or audio calls on WhatsApp or Telegram for customers in each occupied Luhansk Oblast and Russia.[5] Kharchenko reported that Russian authorities are creating a broader legislative framework for limiting WhatsApp and Telegram. Russian occupation authorities have traditionally used varied justifications for limiting web entry in occupied Ukraine. Sevastopol occupation governor Mikhail Razvozhaev claimed on August 16 that cell web restrictions had been required to guard residents in occupied Ukraine from “terrorist assaults,” alluding to Ukraine’s marketing campaign to strike official army targets in occupied Crimea to attrit Russia’s offensive and defensive capabilities.[6]
Russia is probably going limiting WhatsApp and Telegram to coerce Ukrainians residing in occupied Ukraine to change to Russia’s state-controlled MAX messaging software program, which is able to enable Russia even larger management over communications and the knowledge house in occupied areas. A Ukrainian official reported on August 15 that Russian occupation officers in occupied Zaporizhia Oblast introduced a compulsory order for occupation officers to change from utilizing Telegram to utilizing MAX, in line with ISW’s current evaluation.[7] The Ukrainian Resistance Heart reported on August 15 that Russian occupation authorities ordered residents to start utilizing MAX for condominium constructing chats.[8] The Ukrainian Resistance Heart reported that utilizing MAX will enable occupation authorities to manage and oversee all discussions in condominium constructing communities, monitor residents, establish Ukrainian residents who resist the occupation, and block undesirable data. Ukrainian information service Suspilne reported on August 15 {that a} full block of WhatsApp and Telegram is feasible in Crimea as Russian occupation administrations put together to make use of MAX and urged residents of the occupied territories to make use of VPNs or alternate messaging companies as a substitute.
Russian occupation authorities proceed to violate the Geneva Conventions by forcibly mobilizing residents of occupied Ukraine into the Russian Armed Forces. Unbiased Ukrainian on-line media outlet Hromadske revealed an interview with a Ukrainian veteran of Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine whom Russia forcibly mobilized into the Russian Armed Forces and whom Ukrainian forces not too long ago captured throughout fight operations in Donetsk Oblast.[9] The person claimed that Russian police planted medicine in his home and compelled him to serve his 12.5-year jail sentence by sending him to battle within the 1st Motor Rifle Brigade, 51st Mixed Arms Military (previously the first Donetsk Individuals’s Republic Military Corps) within the Pokrovsk route. The person reported that he knew one other Ukrainian from occupied Kherson Oblast who “voluntarily” signed an MoD contract to keep away from trial and imprisonment. Ukrainian journalist Vladislav Esipenko reported that Russian recruiters started to go to the jail at which he was detained in occupied Kerch, Crimea, in 2023 to recruit prisoners into the Russian army.[10] Russian opposition outlet Verstka reported in July 2025 that Russian police, since Spring 2024, should give prison defendants the chance to signal a contract with the Russian Ministry of Protection (MoD) as an alternative choice to prosecution and imprisonment, and that Russian authorities pay police bonuses for recruiting into the army.[11] ISW assesses that occupation authorities have seemingly expanded these practices to occupied Ukraine.
Occupation authorities are additionally recruiting males in occupied Ukraine between ages 18 and 30 for conscript service, upon which Russian officers try and coerce them to signal contracts with the Russian MoD. The Ukrainian veteran claimed that occupation officers additionally mobilize all males aged 18 to 30 in occupied Ukraine for conscript service in Russia.[12] The New York Occasions reported that occupation officers in occupied Kherson and Zaporizhia oblasts ordered all males aged 18-35 to report for army obligation as early as September 2022.[13] Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the MoD to conscript 160,000 males in March 2025, the most important conscription cycle in 14 years.[14] Russian legislation theoretically prohibits conscripts from immediately collaborating in fight operations.[15] ISW has, nonetheless, beforehand reported on casual efforts by army officers to recruit conscripts for the conflict towards Ukraine by money bonuses, pretend contract signatures, and coercion. [16] Army officers are seemingly making comparable efforts to drive conscripted Ukrainians to signal contracts with the Russian MoD and combating for the Russian military towards their fellow Ukrainians.
The Geneva Conventions prohibit occupying powers from conscripting civilians from occupied territory into the occupying armed forces. Article 51 of the Fourth Geneva Conference states that an “occupying energy might not compel protected individuals to serve in its armed or auxiliary forces.”[17] The article additionally prohibits “stress or propaganda which goals at securing voluntary enlistment” and “any work which might contain them within the obligation of collaborating in army operations.” Russia and Ukraine are each events to the Geneva Conventions.[18] Russian efforts to recruit and conscript Ukrainians violate Russia’s obligations as a belligerent occupying energy below the Geneva Conventions.
The Kremlin-controlled Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) continues to extend its affect on youngsters and youth in occupied Crimea through the use of religious and academic actions as a device for indoctrination and militarization. The Ukrainian Heart for Countering Disinformation (CCD) reported on August 17 that the ROC is holding the “Istoky” (Origins) youth discussion board on the Artek Worldwide Kids Heart in occupied Crimea.[19] ROC representatives offered the “Brotherhood of Orthodox Scouts” scouting program in the course of the Istoky discussion board.[20] The scouting program is explicitly militaristic and teaches youngsters wilderness and survival abilities, weapon dealing with, and topics them to ideological indoctrination.[21] Ukrainian outlet Mezha reported on August 17 that the scouting program permits the Kremlin to arrange Ukrainian youngsters in occupied territories for future service within the Russian army below the guise of “religious and academic values.”[22]
The Istoky youth discussion board is a continuation of the Kremlin’s wider effort to indoctrinate Ukrainian youngsters by exposing them to a hyper-nationalist pro-Russian identification. The Ukrainian Resistance Heart said that Artek features as a “propaganda manufacturing unit” with the target of integrating Ukrainian youngsters into the “Russian World.”[23] 2025 marks Artek’s one hundredth anniversary, Russia’s “Victory within the Nice Patriotic Warfare,” and the “12 months of the Defender of the Fatherland.”[24] Artek is celebrating its centennial and the anniversary of those patriotic occasions by operating over 100 occasions advocating Russian conventional values and patriotism all through 2025.[25] The Istoky youth discussion board is a part of this wider programming. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in early August that the discussion board will encompass debates, lectures, and workshops to “educate the youthful era based mostly on the traditions of patriotism and civic obligation, nurturing a spirit of duty for the Motherland’s future and satisfaction within the achievements of our forefathers.”[26] The discussion board’s in depth syllabus focuses on commemorating Russia’s victory within the Nice Patriotic Warfare (World Warfare II) and imbuing college students with religious and ethical values.[27] ISW has reported on the importance of the Nice Patriotic Warfare mythos in forming a brand new Russian nationalist ideology, and has famous that Russia makes use of World Warfare II historical past as a device of indoctrination in occupied Ukraine.[28] The Istoky discussion board will progress in six modules together with “Household Values,” “Guardians of Historical past,” and “Roots and Media” levels.[29] The programming contains journeys to Russian cultural and historic websites as a part of a continued effort to impose Russian identification and tradition onto Ukrainian youngsters.[30]
The Kremlin continues to instrumentalize the ROC to legitimize and pursue its oppressive actions towards youngsters of occupied Ukrainian territories. ISW beforehand reported that colleges in occupied Kherson Oblast launched new curricula to encourage increased beginning charges amongst Ukrainian youth and to unfold conventional Russian household values.[31] Academic programming that promotes Russian conventional and household values is a type of Russification. The “Household Values” stage of the Istoky discussion board contains individuals as younger as seven years outdated, and its curriculum goals to “[strengthen] household values” and emphasize the “significance of training and upbringing in shaping [a] baby’s character.”[32] These objectives are consistent with ROC Moscow Patriarchate Head Patriarch Kirill’s statements on the Council of the Russian Federal Meeting on January 23, 2024 when he emphasised the “significance of college” within the “formation and training of character and ethical qualities of an individual.”[33] ROC doctrine is prolonged to occupied Ukraine as a coercive management device, as ISW has often reported.[34]
Russia makes use of Artek as a militarized cultural reeducation camp for Ukrainian youngsters. Mezha reported that Russia makes use of Artek as a rehabilitation facility for Russian servicemen who had been wounded within the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and concurrently as a youngsters’s camp.[35] The Ukrainian Almenda Heart of Civil Training reported that Russian instructors at Artek educate youngsters primary army affairs and that Ukrainian youth take part in militarized video games, which the Crimean department of the Russian Volunteer Society for the Help to the Military, Aviation, and Navy (DOSAAF) organizes.[36] ISW beforehand reported that DOSAAF is a Soviet-era youth motion selling army abilities that Russia has resuscitated because the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.[37] Artek not too long ago hosted the ultimate session of “Massive Change,” which is the flagship youth venture of Motion of the First.[38] ISW beforehand reported that Motion of the First is a Russian youth motion selling military-patriotic training in Russia and occupied Ukraine.[39] The winners of “Massive Change” are 300 Ukrainian youngsters aged fifth to seventh grade. They are going to obtain a “Dream Journey” to a number of “historic and culturally vital” locations in Russia and take part in an “instructional and cultural program.”[40] Artek gives Russia with a platform by which to each militarize and indoctrinate Ukrainian youngsters.
The Russian “Serving to Ours” Basis expanded its operations to occupied Kherson Oblast and facilitated the deportation of an unspecified variety of Ukrainian youngsters to a Russian government-controlled medical facility in Moscow Oblast. Occupied Kherson Oblast-based outlet Tavria reported on August 15 that the Commissioner for Kids’s Rights for occupied Kherson Oblast Irina Kravchenko and Kherson Oblast occupation governor Vladimir Saldo organized a “rehabilitation journey” for Ukrainian youngsters and their moms from occupied Kherson Oblast to Moscow Oblast.[41] The Russian “Serving to Ours” Basis and the Kherson Oblast occupation Ministry of Training and Science supported the journey. The youngsters and their moms seemingly went to the “Klyazma” sanatorium in Moscow Oblast for “rehabilitation.” ISW has noticed earlier situations of the “Serving to Ours” basis facilitating the deportation of Ukrainian youngsters, typically with parental supervision, to the Klyazma sanatorium close to Moscow Metropolis, which Russia’s Federal Medical and Organic Company (FMBA) runs.[42] ISW has beforehand written that Russia has reportedly deported over 1,200 Ukrainians, together with youngsters, from occupied Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts to the “Klyazma” sanatorium since 2022.[43] A Russian occupation official not too long ago said on July 27 that “Serving to Ours” deliberate to broaden its operations from occupied Luhansk Oblast to occupied Kherson in August 2025, which is in line with the timing of the deportation of kids from occupied Kherson Oblast.[44]
Russia continues to make use of Ukrainian youth from the occupied territories for improvement and reconstruction applications each in Russia and occupied Ukraine. The Ukrainian Resistance Heart reported on August 13 that Russian occupation officers are sending youth from occupied Crimea to Russia’s Kursk Oblast below the guise of volunteer humanitarian help applications, which Kremlin propaganda organizations facilitate.[45] Russian information outlet Crimean Information reported on August 11 that the Russian Youth Individuals’s Entrance is organizing journeys to Kursk Oblast for Ukrainian college students from the Crimean Vernadsky College, the Simferopol School of Public Catering and Commerce, and members of occupation youth councils.[46] Russian information outlet Lenta’s Kursk Oblast service reported on August 18 that Crimean youth cleaned particles from residential constructions and a youngsters’s clinic in Kursk Oblast and distributed water to residents.[47] Russia additionally coerces Ukrainian youngsters to participate in development and improvement tasks in occupied Ukraine. The Ukrainian Resistance Heart reported on August 17 that Russian occupation administrations are creating “pupil labor models” in occupied Luhansk Oblast and have compelled over 500 Ukrainian youngsters to work as builders, educators, and repair personnel.[48] Russian officers in occupied Kherson Oblast introduced on August 17 that 260 youngsters from each Russia and occupied Ukraine participated within the youth training discussion board ”Youthful South” in occupied Zaporizhia Oblast.[49] Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed this discussion board and praised the discussion board’s aim of involving youth in improvement tasks in occupied Ukraine.[50]
ISW has beforehand reported on Russian occupation officers’ use of “youth brigades” in occupied Donetsk Oblast with a purpose to offset labor prices and construct youth buy-in for the Russian occupation.[51] The Ukrainian Resistance Heart reported on August 12 that Russian occupation officers compelled Ukrainian youth in occupied Donetsk Oblast to pour and carry water, stand guard at water distribution factors, and accompany water vehicles over the backdrop of the Russian-created water disaster in occupied Donetsk Oblast.[52] ISW assesses that Russian occupation officers will seemingly proceed to make the most of Ukrainian youth as a labor useful resource for improvement and reconstruction tasks as that is economically useful to Russian occupation administrations and continues Russia’s follow of indoctrinating and militarizing Ukrainian youth.
Russian occupation officers proceed to coach Ukrainian youngsters to change into drone operators for future service within the Russian army or the Russian protection industrial base. Sevastopol occupation officers introduced on August 12 that registration opened for the 2025 “Battle of the Drones” Pageant.[53] The pageant is focused at youth aged 13 to 25 and goals to develop engineering, programming, and design abilities with sensible purposes to drones and different unmanned applied sciences. Occupation officers said that the pageant will bear skilled coaching from Russian protection and tech business consultants, use Russian software program to construct, design, and management their very own drones, and check their drones in competitions. ISW has beforehand assessed that Russia is making an attempt to incentivize youth participation in drone coaching applications by “gamification” of drone operations and drone competitions such because the Battle of the Drones Pageant.[54] ISW continues to evaluate that coaching applications emphasizing drone operation and improvement, such because the 2025 Battle of the Drones Pageant, contribute to the militarization of Ukrainian youth as Russian occupation officers put together youth for future service within the Russian army whereas augmenting the Russian DIB’s drone manufacturing and innovation capabilities.
[1] https://t.me/akashevarova/8127
[2] https://t.me/sprotyv_official/7496
[3] https://ria-m dot television/ua/information/385437/meshkantsi-melitopolya-masovo-skarjatsya-okupanti-obmejili-spilkuvannya-z-ridnimi-z-ukraini-cherez-telegram-(skrin).html
[4] https://t.me/andriyshTime/41805
[5] https://t.me/luhanskaVTSA/29015
[6] https://t.me/razvozhaev/13828
[7] https://t.me/andriyshTime/41805 ; https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-august-4-2025
[8] https://t.me/sprotyv_official/7504
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xkLyA2j70w
[10] https://ru.krymr.com/a/news-krym-/33503145.html
[11] https://verstka.media/kak-policeiskie-otpravlyayut-zaderzhannyh-na-voinu-vmesto-suda
[12] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xkLyA2j70w
[13] https://www.nytimes.com/dwell/2022/09/25/world/russia-ukraine-putin-news
[14] http://publication.pravo.gov.ru/doc/0001202503310001 ; https://www.dw.com/en/how-russia-recruits-troops-in-occupied-ukrainian-territories/a-72289013
[15] https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/hiding-russiapercentE2percent80percent99s-weakness
[16] https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-force-generation-and-technological-adaptations-update-august-13-2025 ; https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-6-2025
[17] https://redcross.org.ua/en/information/2025/01/102618/
[18] https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/gciv-1949/state-parties?activeTab=
[19] https://cpd.gov dot ua/international-direction/ssha/militaryzacziya-ditej-na-tot-skautskyj-ruh-rpcz-u-krymu/
[20] https://mezha dot internet/eng/bukvy/russian-orthodox-church-militarizes-youth-in-occupied-crimea-s-artek-camp/ ; https://suspilne dot media/crimea/1092646-u-krimu-posilili-vpliv-rpc-dla-militarizacii-ditej-ta-molodi-centr-protidii-dezinformacii/
[21] https://cpd.gov dot ua/international-direction/ssha/militaryzacziya-ditej-na-tot-skautskyj-ruh-rpcz-u-krymu/
[22] https://mezha dot internet/eng/bukvy/russian-orthodox-church-militarizes-youth-in-occupied-crimea-s-artek-camp/
[23] https://www dot fb dot com/sprotyv dot official/posts/pfbid02FyFqPnvEVTqBS5ZzzN8QTBb1gPDjJvdSmpEQmtEZTvMVsU32icphC7898knfLnZel?locale=uk_UA
[24] https://occasions dot myrosmol dot ru/en/boards/istoki/
[25] https://intent dot press/en/information/conflict/2025/in-the-tot-of-ukraine-russians-will-teach-children-to-fight-from-the-age-of-7/
[26] en dot kremlin dot ru/catalog/areas/CR/occasions/77726/print
[27] https://occasions dot myrosmol dot ru/en/boards/istoki/
[28] https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-may-6-2025
[29] https://occasions dot myrosmol dot ru/en/boards/istoki/
[30][30] https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-april-8-2025; https://occasions dot myrosmol dot ru/en/boards/istoki/
[31] https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-june-9-2025
[32] https://occasions dot myrosmol dot ru/en/boards/istoki/
[33] https://mospat dot ru/en/information/91290/
[34] https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-may-19-2025; https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-april-8-2025; https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-april-9-2023
[35] https://mezha dot internet/eng/bukvy/russian-orthodox-church-militarizes-youth-in-occupied-crimea-s-artek-camp/
[36] https://almenda dot org/en/artek-in-the-tot-from-recreation-camp-to-propaganda-machine/
[37] https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-july-21-2025
[38] https://будьвдвижении dot рф/information/v-arteke-startovali-finaly-bolshoy-peremeny-dlya-shkolnikov-5-7-klassov-i-uchastnikov-mezhdunarodnog/
[39] https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-june-10-2025
[40] https://будьвдвижении dot рф/information/v-arteke-startovali-finaly-bolshoy-peremeny-dlya-shkolnikov-5-7-klassov-i-uchastnikov-mezhdunarodnog/
[41] https://t.me/SALDO_VGA/9247
[42] https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-july-29-2025; https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-april-3-2025; https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-june-4-2023; https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-september-29-2023
[43] https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-april-3-2025
[44] https://t.me/miroshnik_r/19470
[45] https://t.me/sprotyv_official/7495
[46] https://gazetacrimea dot ru/information/krymskie-studenty-v-chetvyertyy-raz-otpravilis-na-pomoshch-mirnym-zhitelyam-i-boytsam-v-kurskuyu-obl/?ysclid=meiw57t8ow453048505
[47] https://news-kursk dot ru/society/2025/08/18/79376.html?ysclid=meiw8710ln351697566
[48] https://t.me/sprotyv_official/7512
[49] https://t.me/BalitskyEV/5943
[50] https://t.me/BalitskyEV/5943
[51] https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-august-12-2025
[52] https://t.me/sprotyv_official/7493
[53] https://t.me/razvozhaev/13661
[54] https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-july-3-2025
