National Resistance Center: Moscow plans to relocate 300,000 Russians to occupied Mariupol.

Moscow has prepared a "development plan" for occupied Mariupol, which includes an increase in population by around 300,000 via migration from Russia, reported[1] the National Resistance Center, an organization operated by Ukraine's Special Forces. Moscow reportedly intends on completing the transfer by 2035, the center wrote, citing sources in local underground resistance who obtained the occupation administration's documents. The Kremlin started a program of cheap mortgages on properties in occupied parts of Ukraine, such as Donetsk Oblast's Mariupol, to encourage Russians to move there, reads the report.

In addition, Moscow purportedly sends work migrants and civil servants from Russia's "depressed" regions to the occupied territories. At the same time, residents of Mariupol and other occupied settlements are forcibly deported to Russia, the National Resistance Center added.

On July 27, an exiled advisor to Mariupol mayor Petro Andriushchenko said[2] that Moscow-installed occupation authorities in the city were illegally evicting residents from their homes if they couldn't provide property ownership documents. Mariupol, a once prosperous city on the Azov Sea coast, was home to more than 400,000 people.

Russian troops heavily bombed Mariupol since the beginning of the full-scale invasion and occupied the city in May 2022.

One onslaught, one family, one lucky chance: Surviving Mariupol theater bombing Viktoria Dubovitska, 24, and her two children survived the Russian bombing of the Mariupol Drama Theater by pure luck. Like hundreds of Mariupol residents, Dubovitska's family was sheltering near the theater's main stage.

But on March 16, her two-year-old daughter Anastasia got sick, and the famil...

News editor

Dinara Khalilova is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She has previously worked as a fixer and local producer for Sky News. Dinara holds a BA in journalism from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and a Master's degree in media and communication from Bournemouth University in the UK.

References

1. ^ reported (sprotyv.mod.gov.ua)
2. ^ said (t.me)
3. ^ One onslaught, one family, one lucky chance: Surviving Mariupol theater bombingViktoria Dubovitska, 24, and her two children survived the Russian bombing of the Mariupol Drama Theater by pure luck.

   Like hundreds of Mariupol residents, Dubovitska's family was sheltering near the theater's main stage.

   But on March 16, her two-year-old daughter Anastasia got sick, and the famil... (kyivindependent.com)