University Club Washington D.C.
June 17, 2026
Orest Deychakiwsky
I’m going to address the situation of Ukrainians living under Russian occupation – (the human dimension, as we say in the OSCE world) which I’ve done as a participant of this particular panel for the last few years.
The plight of Ukrainians living under Russian occupation (some for 12 years now, since 2014!) does not get nearly the attention it deserves. But it should, because conditions for the estimated 4 to 5 million Ukrainians living there are dreadful and, in some respects, deteriorating.
One cannot overstate the level of repression in the occupied territories. With the passage of time, one might think it has let up. Not so. Just one telling example – according to a recent account by the Ukrainian human rights organization Truth Hounds, there are at least seven torture chambers in Enerhodar holding no less than 78 staff of the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest.
The human rights picture remains awful. There is a climate of fear. People can’t make real choices in their lives. They are robbed of their dignity. Abuses abound. According to the Freedom House 2026 report, the Russian occupied territories of Ukraine – covering conditions in Crimea and the occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya oblasts – are currently ranked as the least free place in the entire world with a -1 rating. Think about that for a minute. They are rated even lower than major human rights violators like North Korea, or China’s occupied Tibet and Uyghur regions. For comparison purposes, even highly repressive Russia gets a 12/100 (“not free”). Wartime Ukraine gets a 51/100 (“partly free”) – which has been the case all but three years of independence.
Human rights abuses in the occupied territories include (but are not limited to) arbitrary and unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, abductions, torture, violence (including sexual violence) and forced displacement and deportation. Anyone perceived to be disloyal is especially vulnerable. Moscow is determined to stamp out any hint of dissent. And there is an incredible danger with any resistance activity – which continues to exist. There are some truly brave souls out there!
Ukrainians in the occupied territories are deprived of any democratic rights and freedoms. Political rights? Zero. Elections? A farce. Political pluralism and representation? Zero. Freedoms of speech, expression, assembly and association, independent media? Zero. Journalists are persecuted. Religious liberties? Well, near zero, unless you belong to the loyal Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). Evangelical Christians, Ukrainian Greek Catholics, Ukrainian
Orthodox, and other non-ROC affiliated religious groups are persecuted. More than 40 clergy have been killed in the occupied territories and many more tortured, detained and deported.
And, as all of us are well aware, there are tens of thousands of children who have been forcibly removed from their homes/abducted to Russia and within the occupied territories.
Russia’s repression and abuses are not arbitrary. The violations are systemic –the result of deliberate policies that affect every aspect of civilian life. These policies are abetted by various systems of control, including pervasive physical and digital surveillance. And Russia has imposed an information blackout to cut the occupied regions from the rest of Ukraine.
There is passportization compelling Ukrainians to obtain Russian citizenship or be denied medical care and other social services and face various employment and other restrictions. The economic situation/daily life is tough enough for a whole host of reasons– with poverty, shortages, inflation, etc. – but it’s even more difficult to survive economically if you don’t have a Russian passport.
Then there is Russification, the attempt to erase all manifestations of Ukrainian identity, which arguably constitutes genocide, or at a minimum genocidal intent. Ukrainian school age children, of which there are an estimated 600,000 in Russian curriculum schools in the occupied territories, are indoctrinated/brainwashed with pro-Russian education promoting the “Russian world” narrative and are consistently fed lies about and taught to hate Ukraine.
To add insult to injury, military training is being integrated into schools. Military-patriotic camps and state-sponsored youth organizations prepare these Ukrainian youngsters for conscription, in effect turning them into “good” Russian soldiers who will fight against their own fellow Ukrainians. Indeed, just this year, the conscription of youth has intensified as a systematic and coercive process. Keep in mind that the 4th Geneva Convention proscribes occupying authorities from compelling residents in these territories to serve in its armed forces. Not that Russia cares in the least about international law.
Among other manifestations of Russification are the burning of Ukrainian books taken from schools and libraries, the looting of museums, the destruction of Ukrainian symbols and the renaming of streets, the demolition of monuments (including to the Holodomor) and erection of new ones that cultivate pro-Russian loyalty, identity and patriotism.
Russia expands its control and integration of the occupied territories through other means – including outright colonization. To replace the millions of Ukrainians who have left (estimated at 3 million), Moscow brings in Russian settlers – with plans to bring in more. Clearly, they want to change demographic realities.
The occupying powers target local Ukrainians through property seizures, giving homes to Russians moving to the territories. Moscow has been “expropriating”/ stealing the homes of Ukrainians who fled or whose homes were destroyed or damaged – for instance the 90 percent of homes during the barbaric 2022 siege of Mariupol. This process has been intensifying in recent months.
Now, a word about policy:
Any stop to the war, should one take place at all, would likely involve a ceasefire along the current front lines, which would lead to some kind of de facto recognition of the reality that Russia exercises control over the territory it occupies. And while Ukraine is more than holding its own these days – the momentum is clearly with Ukraine – we probably won’t see a Ukrainian victory with a complete Russian withdrawal from all of Ukraine hence, the liberation of all Ukrainians in the near-term (as desirable as that would be).
This brings up the question of de-jure recognition – the formal, legal acknowledgement that a territory belongs to a particular state. You might recall that last year, President Trump toyed with the idea of formal recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which was met with strong opposition from Ukraine, Europe, the U.S. Congress and foreign policy experts.
So I doubt that the international community would ever go so far as to legally recognize Russia’s control over the territories it currently occupies, even in the event of a durable cease fire. And it shouldn’t. The international community MUST uphold the policy of non-recognition and never, ever, accept legally Russia’s occupation of any Ukrainian lands. Western countries should follow the model of the Welles declaration of 1940, when the United States refused to diplomatically recognize the annexation by the Soviet Union of the three Baltic states. They should do so not only for the sake of international principles and law, but for the sake of keeping faith with the Ukrainian people who suffer daily under Russia’s brutal occupation.
Given the current geo-political situation, growing Ukrainian strength, and increasing Russian vulnerabilities, I’m confident that the day of liberation for Ukrainians suffering under the Russian boot will come much sooner than the 50 years it took the Baltic States to break free of Russian occupation. In the meantime, let’s ensure that, at a minimum, these millions of Ukrainians are not forgotten.