The Luhansk and Donetsk provinces in eastern Ukraine together form the Donbass region – an area characterized by heavy industry. Conquering the region is one of Putin’s main goals, and during the fall Russian authorities arranged local elections in the occupied areas.
The elections are an attempt to strengthen control over the regions which it claimed to have annexed last year but which it still does not have full control over. Now the Kremlin is making another effort to tighten its grip on the area. By importing migrants from Central Asia into the region, the Ukrainian population will become a minority.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants
According to the Ukrainian organization, Center for National Resistance, hundreds of thousands of migrants, mainly from former Soviet states, have already been placed in Donbass.
“Most of them work in the construction industry, but in the future the Russians plan to grant them citizenship,” reports Center for National Resistance (CNR).
The goal is to make a Donbass into a cross-border commonwealth consisting of the Russian regions of Voronezh and Rostov together with Ukrainian Luhansk and Donetsk.
“In this way, the enemy is trying to expand and blur the geographical concept of Donbass and give it a Russian connection, because Voronezh has never actually belonged to Donbass,” writes Ukrainian CNR.
The governors of Voronezh and Rostov, together with the Russian-appointed leaders of Donetsk and Luhansk, have signed an agreement to form the Commonwealth of Donbass. However, it is dismissed by Ukraine.
“Propaganda”
“These legal agreements have no legal force and are void and are worthless props to spread propaganda. This does not affect the real situation and Donbass remains Ukrainian territory,” CNR writes.
According to Ukrainian sources, the large influx of migrants has already led to an increase in crime. With the help of organized criminal gangs, the Russians are trying to improve their control over the occupied region, write Kyiv Post.