With its armed aggression against Ukraine, the Russian Federation has unleashed the first continental war in Europe in the 21st century, undermining the system of collective world security established after the Second World War. Humanity is once again confronted with a regime that seeks a violent revision of borders and is moving towards the latest form of totalitarianism. 

Eleven years after the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, we can discuss the lessons and experiences that our country has gained and that are important for us and our partners to analyze. As well as the way the aggressor country prepares the occupation of territories with the help of «soft power» - such as cultural, educational programs, simplified passportization, seizure of the information field, etc. The «soft power» is then followed by the troops who, through  the instrumentalization of flagrant violations of human rights, practices of forced disappearances and «filtration», conquer the civilian population of the occupied territories and then impose their policies to keep the population and the occupied territories under control. 

This special report is the result of an analysis of the experience of the occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine and a search for common patterns of actions and policies of the Russian Federation implemented before and after the occupation of the territory of the Crimean Peninsula, and how these practices were later applied to other territories of Ukraine that are now under the occupation of the Russian Federation. 

The purpose of the report is to systematize and analyze the practices of mass human rights violations by the Russian Federation as one of the key tools for seizing and maintaining control over Ukrainian territories, as well as the implementation of the policy of the aggressor country to conquer the civilian population of these territories.

The report covers the period since the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014, analyzing the events on the eve of the deployment of the occupation of Ukrainian territories, the systematic practice of human rights violations during the seizure and maintenance of control over the territories. In addition, the report focuses on an attempt to analyze the effectiveness of the response of the Ukrainian state to massive violations of international law by the Russian Federation.

I decided to prepare a special report because today, unfortunately, there are no comprehensive and detailed reports that would outline the living conditions in the  TOT of Ukraine, as well as the system of actions of the Russian authorities aimed at subjugating the population of the occupied territories. For the Russian Federation, the occupation was never a temporary measure: even before the beginning of the occupation and during all the years after it, the Russian Federation did everything to «transform» the Ukrainian citizens of our occupied territories into Russians - silent, weak-willed and submissive people. And those citizens who bravely resisted had to be destroyed, deprived of freedom or forced to leave the occupied territories.

This report is an attempt to look at the practices and policies of the Russian Federation regarding the occupation of the Ukrainian territories through the prism of human rights violations, which are not isolated acts, but an integral state policy of the Russian Federation. The international community is not fully aware of what is happening in the occupied Ukrainian territories and how the Russian Federation operates. With this report we want to show the real state of affairs, to show life under occupation as it is. We also want to show how the occupation authorities use systematic practices of human rights violations to ensure control over the TOT of Ukraine and the implementation and maintenance of the occupation regime. Our wish is not only to demonstrate the situation and let the world hear the voice of the people under occupation, but also to start an important conversation about how this terrible Ukrainian experience of war in the center of Europe can and should be investigated to prevent similar crimes in the future.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the entire team of the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, the members of the Working Group on the Preparation of the Special Report, as well as the team of experts1 for the prepared Special Report and recommendations, which I am sure will be useful both to the state bodies of Ukraine and to international partners.

Dmytro Lubinets

Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner

for Human Rights

special-report-2025-en.pdf