Author: Karolina Hird



Data cut-off: 11am ET, June 30

ISW's Russian Occupation Update tracks the activities that occur in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. 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.

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The Russian federal Unified Institute for Spatial Planning (EIPP) announced plans on June 30 to develop the “tourist potential” of occupied Ukraine. The EIPP, a subordinate entity to the Russian Ministry of Construction, Housing, and Utilities, stated that it identified opportunities for the development of “health and wellness tourism” in occupied Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia oblasts and “cultural and educational, sports, military-patriotic, industrial, and pilgrimage tourism” in occupied Luhansk Oblast. The EIPP project includes plans for the development of transportation infrastructure to facilitate the movement of tourists to occupied areas of Ukraine. The EIPP stressed that the development of tourism in occupied Ukraine is “a strategic direction” for Russia. The EIPP also created a plan for the development of several cities and districts in occupied Zaporizhia Oblast, largely intended to link transportation logistics to tourism projects. ISW has previously reported on EIPP’s role in creating and implementing infrastructure projects throughout occupied Ukraine, and continues to assess that such projects allow Russia to simultaneously integrate occupied Ukraine into the Russian sphere of influence while also setting conditions to generate revenue off of the occupation. Russia’s insistence on treating occupied Ukraine as a viable tourist destination is notable: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned these areas into active combat zones, and continued Russian plans to attract tourists to occupied areas is both irresponsible and a potential violation of international law.

Key Takeaways:

• Russian occupation administrators continue efforts to incentivize Russians and loyalists to relocate to occupied Ukraine.

• The Russian federal Unified Institute for Spatial Planning (EIPP) announced plans on June 30 to develop the “tourist potential” of occupied Ukraine. Russia’s insistence on treating occupied Ukraine as a viable tourist destination is a potential violation of international law.

• Russia is likely to leverage the new occupation head of Mariupol to deepen links between the occupied city and Russian federal subjects and to pursue the proliferation of profitable development projects.

• The Russian youth military-patriotic activism group “Movement of the First” is expanding its influence in occupied Ukraine.

• Russia continues sending Ukrainian children to summer camps and military-patriotic programs across the Russian Federation.

Click Here to Read the Full Update

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