Since 2014, up to 800,000 citizens of the Russian Federation have illegally arrived in Crimea, while about 100,000 Ukrainians have left the peninsula.
The Russian Federation is artificially changing the demographic composition of occupied Ukraine
The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU) reported that since 2014, the Russian authorities have relocated up to 800,000 Russian citizens to occupied Crimea and forced about 100,000 Ukrainian citizens to leave the peninsula.
The Russian government relies on such policies as:
preferential mortgage lending,
resettlement of Russian officials and their families,
deportation of Ukrainian citizens to the mainland of Ukraine and "encouragement" of Ukrainian citizens to move to Russia in order to vacate their place of residence in Crimea,
encouraging Russian citizens to resettle.
The Union added that the Russian occupation authorities are taking similar measures to restore the population in other regions. The Russian authorities are currently trying to encourage Russians to move to the occupied Crimea due to the high intensity of military operations near the peninsula.
The UHHRU notes that this Russian policy violates international humanitarian law, namely Article 49 of the Convention on the Protection of the Civilian Population in Time of War: "The occupying power must not transfer or deport parts of its civilian population to the territory it occupies."
The Russian Federation is looking for workers to relocate to the occupied territories
The UHHRU notes the presence of a significant number of advertisements on Russian job search sites recruiting people from the regions of Russia and CIS countries to move to work in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
In particular, we are talking about construction workers, law enforcement officers, doctors, etc. Some of them enter into temporary contracts, but others may stay in the occupied territories of Ukraine, tempted by salaries that are often several times higher than in Russian regions.
Earlier, the Center of National Resistance reported that the number of illegal migrants from Central Asia in the occupied territories of Ukraine has already reached 100,000 people.
