Russia's Economic Occupation of Southeastern Ukraine

Abstract

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has been pursuing a comprehensive campaign to incorporate the new territories that it has occupied into the Russian Federation's economic, administrative and legal space. With the front line largely static during 2023, Russia has used the time to seize Ukrainian businesses and redistribute assets to loyal locals or Russian business groups. Russia is also pouring billions of dollars into a reconstruction campaign, centred on Mariupol. Russia hopes to use these economic levers to consolidate political and economic control over the territories, making it increasingly difficult for Ukraine to regain and reintegrate these lands in the future.