Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a sweeping new decree outlining the Kremlin’s long-term plan to reshape the national identity of residents living in occupied Ukrainian regions. The document, titled “State National Policy Strategy of the Russian Federation Through 2036,” consists of 23 pages and explicitly designates Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson as territories subject to an intensive ethnic and civic assimilation program.
The strategy sets a clear target: by 2036, at least 95 percent of the population in these regions should identify with what Moscow calls a “Russian civic identity.” The plan also mandates that 2.56 million residents participate in “all-Russian events,” part of a wider effort to integrate the occupied territories into Russia’s administrative, cultural and ideological space.
In its most politically charged section, the decree refers to both the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the 2022 occupation of four eastern and southern oblasts as the “reunification of historical territories.” This language anchors the Kremlin’s narrative that these lands were always inherently Russian and must be reintegrated—an assertion firmly rejected by Ukraine and the international community.
Another part of the strategy, Section 46, orders the state to intensify efforts against what it calls “neo-Nazism,” “anti-Russian propaganda,” and “false historical narratives.” In practice, this phrasing mirrors the justification Moscow has repeatedly used to suppress Ukrainian cultural expression, independent media, local education systems, religious communities and civic organizations in the occupied territories.
Human rights groups say the decree merely codifies what has already been happening on the ground: forced passportization, elimination of Ukrainian curricula, arrests of teachers and local officials, suppression of Ukrainian-language public life, and the systematic dismantling of Ukrainian identity. As one rights advocate put it in response to the decree, “It is now illegal to be Ukrainian in the occupied territories.” Analysts warn that the new framework provides Moscow with legal cover for the accelerated Russification of millions of Ukrainians who remain under occupation.
The decree also serves a broader political purpose at a time when Russia is seeking to legitimize its territorial claims through long-term administrative planning, demographic engineering and information control. By embedding the occupied regions into a national strategy stretching to 2036, the Kremlin signals that it expects to maintain control over these territories indefinitely.
For Ukraine, the document highlights the stakes of the conflict and the irreversible changes Russia intends to impose if it remains in control. Observers note that this is “what peace looks like when Russia wins”: a systematic erasure of Ukrainian identity, presented as state policy and framed as a historical correction.
Full analysis and the original report can be read here:
https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/11/27/russification-of-occupied-ukraine-putin-decree-2036/
