Russian Occupation Update, May 22, 2025

Author: Karolina Hird

Data cut-off: 1 pm EST, May 21

NOTE: ISW will not be publishing the Russian Occupation Update on May 26 or May 29. ISW will resume coverage on June 2.

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:

• A bipartisan group of US senators introduced a resolution on May 20 calling for Russia to return all the Ukrainian children it has deported before finalizing any peace agreement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. ISW continues to assess that there can be no true peace in Ukraine without the safe return of the children that Russia has abducted.
• The contemporary Russian Federation is continuing the Russian Empire’s and Soviet Union’s legacy of targeting indigenous peoples in occupied Crimea, pursuing particularly repressive policies against the Crimean Tatar community.
• An investigation by Ukrainian outlet Suspilne highlights ongoing Russian efforts to prepare Ukrainian children for service in the Russian military.
• Russia also continues to militarize the curricula in non-cadet schools in occupied Ukraine and is leveraging its wider education policy in occupied territories to leverage schoolchildren in the production of military goods.

A bipartisan group of US senators introduced a resolution on May 20 calling for Russia to return all the Ukrainian children it has deported before finalizing any peace agreement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.[1] The resolution acknowledges that Russia’s widescale deportation of Ukrainian children “demonstrates the intent of the government of the Russian Federation to erase the Ukrainian nation and identity” and condemns Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the disproportionate harm Russia has inflicted on children.[2] Ukraine has confirmed Russia’s deportation of 19,546 Ukrainian children as of May 21, 2025, but the true number is likely much higher due to intentional Russian efforts to obscure the breadth of the deportation campaign, and because Russia has frequently targeted socially vulnerable children without guardians who can identify or advocate for them.[3] ISW continues to assess that there can be no true peace in Ukraine without the safe return of the children that Russia has abducted, as the fate of these children is tied to Russia’s military and political goals in Ukraine.[4]

The contemporary Russian Federation is continuing the Russian Empire’s and Soviet Union’s legacy of targeting indigenous peoples in occupied Crimea, pursuing particularly repressive policies against the Crimean Tatar community. May 18 marked the 81^st anniversary of Stalin’s 1944 order to deport over 200,000 Crimean Tatars from their homes in Crimea to remote parts of Russia and Central Asia.[5] Ukraine and several of its international partners, including Latvia, Lithuania, Canada, Poland, Estonia, and Czechia, recognize the Stalinist deportations as a genocide against the Crimean Tatars.[6] Russia’s efforts to forcibly expel Crimean Tatars from their homeland date to 1783, when the Russian Empire first annexed the then-Crimean Khanate—a sovereign Crimean Tatar state—and first began deportation and “de-Tatarization” efforts aimed at the indigenous peoples of Crimea.[7] Russia’s policy in Crimea since its illegal annexation of the peninsula in 2014 has echoed both the Russian Empire’s and the Soviet Union’s policies towards Crimea, particularly in regard to the institutionalized repression against indigenous peoples and Russian efforts to manipulate demographic realities in Crimea using mass deportation campaigns.

Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets reported on May 20 that Russian occupation authorities “visited” several civic activists in occupied Crimea and issued warnings against “violating the law and participating in extremist activities” in the days before the May 18^th anniversary, effectively threatening Crimean Tatar activists to prevent them from organizing or attending commemorative events.[8] Russia also recently added a prominent Crimean Tatar journalist and human rights activist to the Russian list of “foreign agents,” allowing Russian authorities expanded abilities with which to persecute her for perceived anti-Russian activities.[9] Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Olga Kuryshko noted on May 20 that Russia is maintaining a “centuries” long policy of systematically violating the rights of indigenous Crimean groups, namely Crimean Tatars, but also including Karaites and Krymchaks.[10] ISW has frequently highlighted Russia’s systematic oppression against Crimean Tatars and assesses that Russia’s policies towards Crimean Tatars violate international legal requirements on Russia as a belligerent occupying power.[11]

The Russian Federation, following in the steps of its historical predecessors, has manipulated Crimea’s demographics in part by deporting residents from Crimea and repopulating Crimea with Russian citizens from Russia. Kuryshko reported on May 20 that Russia has resettled between 800,000 to one million Russians in occupied Crimea since 2014, echoing other Ukrainian estimates that the Russian occupation of Crimea displaced 35 percent of the population and replaced it with hundreds of thousands of Russians.[12] Crimean Tatars have borne the brunt of these Russian demographic manipulations. For many Crimean Tatars living in occupied Crimea, Russia’s policies since 2022 are reminiscent of a third Crimean Tatar deportation (the first being in 1783 and the second in 1944), as Russia’s occupation of the peninsula has made life there unviable for many Crimean Tatars and led to large-scale population displacement.[13] Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Crimea service Krym Realii reported on May 20 that over 50,000 Crimean Tatars currently live outside of Ukraine as a result of Russia’s occupation.[14]

An investigation by Ukrainian outlet Suspilne highlights ongoing Russian efforts to prepare Ukrainian children for service in the Russian military. Suspilne published a report on May 19 detailing how Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD)-run branches of the Nakhimov Naval School are training and recruiting Ukrainian children in occupied Sevastopol and Mariupol.[15] The Sevastopol branch of the Nakhimov Naval School has been actively training recruits since September 2014, after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea.[16] Cadets enter the school at age eight upon completing their fourth year of grade school, and then study and train for seven years, eventually going on to graduate and then enroll in Russian military academies.[17] Suspilne found that the curricula at the Sevastopol Nakhimov Naval School aims to instill in young cadets pro-Russian military-patriotic ideals, and also includes naval combat training.[18] Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the creation of the Mariupol branch of the Nakhimov Naval School in March 2023, and the institution opened in 2024 and has since reportedly accepted 240 children aged 10 to 13.[19] The Mariupol branch, like the Sevastopol branch, seeks to train young children for eventual service in the Russian navy. The Mariupol school recently posted images of young children dressed in naval uniforms participating in an opening ceremony for a garden in honor of deceased Soviet and Russian veterans. Head of the Crimean “Almenda” Civic Education Center Mariia Sulyalina emphasized that Russia’s “militarization of education….is destroying Ukrainian identity” and preparing children to be “sent to war against their own country.”[20] ISW has reported at length on Russian efforts to militarize and indoctrinate Ukrainian children using various means in order to villainize and erase Ukrainian identity and prepare Ukrainian children to fight in the Russian military against their fellow Ukrainians.[21]

Russia also continues to militarize the curricula in non-cadet schools in occupied Ukraine and is leveraging its wider education policy in occupied territories to leverage schoolchildren in the production of military goods. Ukraine’s Permanent Presidential Representative in Crimea reported on May 19 that Russian officials are implementing the “Unmanned Technologies” project in schools in occupied Simferopol.[22] “Unmanned Technologies” claims to teach students in grades seven to eleven drone operation “through a combination of theory, practice, and competition.”[23] 192 children in Simferopol have reportedly gone through the program since 2024. ISW previously reported on Russian efforts to integrate Ukrainian children into Russia’s wider drone operator training ecosystem—of which the “Unmanned Technologies” program is evidently a part.[24] Russia is also using school-aged children to support in the production of military goods, suggesting that the militarization of schools in occupied Ukraine serves a twofold military preparation/recruitment and production purpose. Russia adopted a federal law on “involving schoolchildren in socially-useful work” in August 2023, and Ukrainian human rights activists have warned that Russia is using this law to force children in occupied Ukraine to produce goods for the Russian military under the guise of such production constituting “socially-useful” labor.[25] Ukrainian sources, including partisan groups active in occupied territories, have reported that Russian officials are forcing children to produce drone components and weave camouflage nets in schools regardless of the consent of their parents.[26] The implications of these educational policies will be far-reaching, as Russia is now actively militarizing an entire generation of young Ukrainians and attempting to turn them into the next generation of Russians.

[1] https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/dav25949.pdf; https://t.me/ermaka2022/6254

[2] https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/dav25949.pdf

[3] https://childrenofwar.gov.ua/en/;

[4] https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/putin-still-stealing-ukrainian-children

[5] https://crimea-platform dot org/en/news/18-travnia-den-koly-pam-iat-staie-aktom-solidarnosti-do-81-kh-rokovyn-henotsydu-krymskotatarskoho-narodu/

[6] https://www.ukrainianworldcongress.org/ukraine-urges-world-to-recognize-1944-crimean-tatar-deportation-as-genocide/; https://www.saeima.lv/en/news/saeima-news/27891-foreign-affairs-committee-adopts-a-statement-on-the-75th-anniversary-of-deportation-of-crimean-tatars-recognising-the-event-as-genocide; https://www.baltictimes.com/lithuanian_parliament_recognizes_soviet_crimes_against_crimean_tatars_as_genocide/; https://subscription.ukrweekly.com/foreign-affairs-committee-passes-motion-by-wrzesnewskyj-on-crimean-tatar-genocide/

[7] https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/05/myths-and-misconceptions-debate-russia/myth-12-crimea-was-always-russian; https://ukraineworld.org/storage/app/media/Re_vision_2019_block%20eng.pdf; https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00085006.1975.11091411; https://www.ukrainer.net/en/propaganda-myths-crimea/

[8] https://t.me/dmytro_lubinetzs/8805

[9] https://krymsos dot com/krymsos-status-inoagenta-daye-okupantam-dodatkovi-vazheli-dlya-peresliduvannya-aktyvistiv-u-krymu/; https://t.me/dmytro_lubinetzs/8805

[10] https://ua.krymr dot com/a/news-kuryshko-yak-rosiya-zminiue-krym/33419225.html

[11] https://isw.pub/OccupationUpdate042125; https://isw.pub/RussianOccupationUpdate041025; https://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/24-210-01%20ISW%20Occupation%20playbook.pdf; https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-5-2024; https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-may-14-2024; https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-january-9-2024; https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-8-2024

[12] https://ua.krymr dot com/a/news-kuryshko-yak-rosiya-zminiue-krym/33419225.html; https://ua.krymr dot com/a/lyudy-tikayut-yak-rosiya-vytisnyaye-krymchan-iz-krymu-deportatsia/33418202.html 

[13] https://ua dot krymr.com/a/lyudy-tikayut-yak-rosiya-vytisnyaye-krymchan-iz-krymu-deportatsia/33418202.html

[14] https://ua.krymr dot com/a/lyudy-tikayut-yak-rosiya-vytisnyaye-krymchan-iz-krymu-deportatsia/33418202.html

[15] https://suspilne dot media/1021307-12-year-military-sailors-russians-militarize-ukrainian-children-naval-schools/

[16] https://dzen dot ru/a/Xeouq8flDAC429JF?ysclid=mam7hqy5ms133610639

[17] https://suspilne dot media/1021307-12-year-military-sailors-russians-militarize-ukrainian-children-naval-schools/

[18] https://suspilne dot media/1021307-12-year-military-sailors-russians-militarize-ukrainian-children-naval-schools/

[19] https://tass dot ru/obschestvo/21442291?ysclid=ma103ufdd0246645818; https://t.me/mariupol24tv/71270; https://suspilne dot media/1021307-12-year-military-sailors-russians-militarize-ukrainian-children-naval-schools/

[20] https://suspilne dot media/1021307-12-year-military-sailors-russians-militarize-ukrainian-children-naval-schools/

[21] https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-april-8-2025; https://isw.pub/OccupationUpdate050825; https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-april-14-2025

[22] https://www.facebook.com/ppu.gov.ua/posts/pfbid0294yyhuJtv12E5aMvrdees7dV2fVaipvRYBtia31dGKTHgQjgx2BxNxNsJ1bUNLkil?rdid=AiXmbsFkxpjZcYCS#

[23] https://msport.rk dot gov.ru/media-reports/6bb82745-5606-40f2-8293-fc6894e94752

[24] https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-april-14-2025

[25] publication.pravo dot gov.ru/document/0001202308040076; https://do.yanao dot ru/documents/active/280389/; https://zmina dot info/news/v-okupovanomu-krymu-shkolyariv-prymushuvaly-shyty-odyag-dlya-rosijskyh-vijskovyh-i-vygotovlyaty-detali-dlya-bezpilotnykiv/

[26] https://t.me/zlaya_mavka/3761; https://zmina dot info/news/v-okupovanomu-krymu-shkolyariv-prymushuvaly-shyty-odyag-dlya-rosijskyh-vijskovyh-i-vygotovlyaty-detali-dlya-bezpilotnykiv/