Russian Occupation Update, May 12, 2025

Authors: Karolina Hird and Tetiana Trach

Data cut-off: 9 am EST, May 12

ISW's Russian Occupation Update tracks the activities that occur in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. The occupation updates will examine Russian efforts to consolidate administrative control of annexed areas and forcibly integrate Ukrainian citizens into Russian sociocultural, economic, military, and governance systems. This product line replaces the section of the Daily Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment covering activities in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
 
To read ISW’s assessment of how Russian activities in occupied areas of Ukraine are part of a coerced Russification and ethnic cleansing campaign, click here.

Key Takeaways:

• An international coalition comprised of Ukraine and its partners agreed on May 9 to establish a special tribunal to investigate and prosecute the Russian crime of aggression against Ukraine.
• Russia continues to propagate public broadcast media to consolidate control over the information space in occupied Ukraine and facilitate the integration of occupied territories into the Russian state.
• Russia appears to be increasingly persecuting women in occupied Crimea.
• Russia continues to staff occupation administrations with Russian veterans of the war in Ukraine.

An international coalition comprised of Ukraine and its partners agreed on May 9 to establish a special tribunal to investigate and prosecute the Russian crime of aggression against Ukraine.[1] The Council of Europe will house the special tribunal, which seeks to prosecute Russian political and military leaders for the international crime of aggression—defined as the use of armed force by one state against the sovereignty, integrity, or independence of another state.[2] The establishment of a special tribunal on Russian aggression in Ukraine is a significant international legal step, as the International Criminal Court (ICC) cannot exercise its jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute Russian crimes of aggression because Russia has not ratified the ICC’s Rome Statute.[3] The special tribunal will allow Ukrainian national authorities to streamline investigations and information sharing with the tribunal’s prosecutor, critically including information regarding Russian mass deportations of Ukrainian children and other crimes Russia is committing in occupied Ukraine.[4]

Russia continues to propagate public broadcast media to consolidate control over the information space in occupied Ukraine and facilitate the integration of occupied territories into the Russian state. The Kherson Oblast Occupation Administration reported on May 7 that Russian occupation officials expanded the occupied Kherson Oblast-based Tavria TV and Radio Company to occupied Crimea, opening a new radio studio in occupied Simferopol.[5] Russian media expert Alexander Malkevich established the Tavria TV and Radio Company in occupied Kherson Oblast in Summer 2022 to disseminate pro-Russian narratives and facilitate the forced integration of Ukrainian civil society into the Russian sphere of influence.[6] Kherson Oblast occupation Information Policy Department head Yevhen Brykov praised Tavria TV as an important breakthrough in Russian media control efforts, as it has become an interregional program in occupied Ukraine. Crimea-based Russian state outlet RIA Novosti Krym reported on May 7 that Russian occupation officials also began video broadcasting the pro-Russian radio Sputnik in Crimea in order to increase the audience reach into occupied Crimea.[7] Pro-Russian radio stations operating in occupied Ukraine include Komsomolskaya Pravda, ENERGY, Children's Radio, Russian Radio, Dorozhnoye Radio, Novoye Radio, Avtoradio, Zvezda Radio, and others.[8] The Ukrainian Resistance Center previously reported on December 20, 2024 that Russian occupation officials launched a large-scale program for the modernization of TV and radio towers in occupied Ukraine to bolster Russian propaganda and to limit access to Ukrainian public broadcast media.[9] ISW previously noted that Russia is actively using television and radio broadcasts to expand Russia’s control over the information space in occupied Ukraine.[10]

Russia appears to be increasingly persecuting women in occupied Crimea. Ukrainian human rights organization KrymSOS warned in March 2025 that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has escalated enforced disappearances, particularly against women, in Crimea since 2022.[11] The Crimean Process human rights initiative noted on May 1 that they confirmed the enforced disappearance of one woman in Crimea in 2022, compared to 10 enforced disappearance cases pertaining to women in 2024-2025.[12] Kharkiv Human Rights Group (KHRG) Head Olha Skrypnyk stated on May 6 that the FSB is increasingly fabricating cases specifically against women in Crimea for perceived anti-Russian behavior, subjecting women to violence and withholding from them needed medical care, and psychologically pressuring women into compliance by threatening to remove their children from their care.[13] Russia is also increasingly moving women from occupied Kherson and Zaporizhia oblasts to detention in occupied Crimea.[14] Russian law enforcement agents notably detained a 24-year-old Crimean Tatar woman who was en route from occupied Stary Krym to occupied Simferopol on May 8, and are denying the woman’s family information about her condition and whereabouts.[15] KrymSOS and other Ukrainian human rights organizations warned that the young woman’s case “bears all the hallmarks of an enforced disappearance.”[16]

Russia continues to staff occupation administrations with Russian veterans of the war in Ukraine. Sevastopol occupation governor Mikhail Razvozhaev held a meeting on May 8 to discuss the implementation of the “Sevastopol—City of Heroes” program.[17] “Sevastopol—City of Heroes” is modeled off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “Time of Heroes” program, which seeks to install veterans of the war in Ukraine into government positions through occupied Ukraine and in the Russian Federation.[18] Razvozhaev reported that 933 Russian veterans registered for the program, 474 passed the qualification tests, and 307 will move to the final round of interviews.[19] Finalists will serve in various sectors of the Sevastopol occupation administration, and the rest will remain in the administrative personnel reserve. ISW has also previously observed the creation of similar programs in occupied Kherson and Luhansk oblasts and continues to assess that the installation of Russian veterans into occupation administrations supports Russian effort to militarize occupied Ukraine and strengthen the Kremlin’s control over local governance.[20]

[1] https://mfa.gov dot ua/en/news/lvivska-zayava-shchodo-zavershennya-roboti-koaliciyi-derzhav-zi-stvorennya-specialnogo-tribunalu-shchodo-zlochinu-agresiyi-proti-ukrayini

[2] https://www.icc-cpi.int/about/how-the-court-works

[3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2025/05/11/international-coalition-agrees-on-the-special-tribunal-for-the-crime-of-aggression-against-ukraine/

[4] https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/582a1916-4c98-42de-936a-f74780c73b02/downloads/52e5c736-6d8c-46a0-9c9e-9e7ef0574b52/Returning%20the%20Stolen%20Children%20of%20Ukraine%2023%2004.pdf?ver=1745511605960

[5] https://t.me/VGA_Kherson/30513 ; https://khogov dot ru/news/v-simferopole-otkrylas-radiostudiya-trk-tavriya/

[6] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/27/tavriya-tv-will-promote-happiness-love-russia-opens-station-occupied-kherson; https://rsf.org/en/investigation-mysterious-alexander-malkevich-kremlin-propagandist-ukraine

[7] https://crimea dot ria.ru/20250507/kak-rabotaet-i-menyaetsya-sputnik-v-krymu--ko-dnyu-radio-v-rossii-1146276070.html?ysclid=mafudan3qy698027651

[8] https://telesputnik dot ru/materials/tech/news/v-novyx-regionax-rossii-poyavitsya-bolse-radiostancii ; https://hersonka dot ru/news/178894?ysclid=mafvz1t9fr715912159

[9] https://t.me/sprotyv_official/5938

[10] https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-may-7-2024

[11] https://krymsos dot com/krymsos-v-okupovanomu-krymu-zrostayut-vypadky-nasylnyczkyh-znyknen-zhinok/

[12] https://krymsos dot com/koly-tysha-staye-zbroyeyu-strahu-nasylnyczki-znyknennya-zhinok-u-krymu/

[13] https://crimeahrg dot org/uk/peresliduvannya-zhinok-u-krimu-posililisya-skripnik/

[14] https://crimeahrg dot org/uk/peresliduvannya-zhinok-u-krimu-posililisya-skripnik/

[15] https://investigator.org.ua/ua/news-2/novosti-krym/275722/; https://ua.krymr dot com/a/news-krym-rosiyski-sylovyky-zatrymaly-krymchanku-khatidzhe-buukchan/33408184.html

[16] https://krymsos dot com/krymsos-vykradennya-hatidzhe-buyukchan-maye-elementy-nasylnyczkogo-znyknennya/

[17] https://t.me/razvozhaev/11711

[18] https://crimea.ria dot ru/20250225/upravlentsy-s-peredovoy-startovala-programma-sevastopol--gorod-geroev-1144457776.html

[19] https://t.me/razvozhaev/11711

[20] https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-may-1-2025