Photo: zn.ua
Russia is planning to deport Ukrainians from the temporarily occupied territories (TOT) to Siberia as part of its so-called “Siberian Development Program,” worth 700 billion rubles, according to the National Resistance Center of Ukraine.
While Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu promotes it as an industrial project, the initiative is in fact another wave of imperial-style deportations reminiscent of Soviet “organized recruitment” programs used to expel Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians, Chechens, and other peoples.
According to the Center, the first stage has already begun: schools, hospitals, and utilities in the occupied territories have received classified letters instructing them to identify workers for “long-term assignments” to the Russian Far East. Those being listed are mainly “without family obligations”—the most vulnerable, easiest to relocate quietly.
The pattern repeats the Soviet playbook: forced passportization, fake “assignments,” and “state resettlement programs” that change local demographics.
Siberia remains depopulated, as Russians are unwilling to move there, so Moscow plans to populate it with deported Ukrainians while bringing Russian citizens into occupied Ukrainian regions, often settling them in homes seized from displaced Ukrainians.
Since September 10, Ukrainians on occupied territories without Russian passports face forced deportation under Putin’s decree labeling them as “illegally residing in Russia.” Those who refuse to take Russian citizenship lose access to healthcare, jobs, and social benefits, facing direct threats of expulsion.
