Russia Militarizing Occupied Ukraine (Part I)

Executive Summary:

• Russia has expanded the militarized occupation model it developed in Crimea after 2014 to the territories of Ukraine it seized after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, constructing new training facilities and expanding infrastructure to ensure a sustained Russian military presence.

• Moscow has intensified drone training and production in occupied Ukraine, using seized military facilities, educational institutions, and specialized training centers to support its drone warfare.

• Russian occupation authorities have converted civilian infrastructure, such as sanatoriums, recreation facilities, and parts of the coastline, into facilities supporting Russian military personnel and operations.

In August, evidence emerged that Russia is operating a network of at least ten bases for launching long-range attack drones, including sites in occupied Donetsk oblast and Crimea (The Telegraph, August 16; Ukrinform, August 17). Russia has already used seven of these facilities to conduct mass attacks against Ukraine-controlled territories. The network includes at least 59 launch rails—tracks used for the takeoff of fixed-wing drones—with additional launch infrastructure still under construction. The presence of at least three drone launch sites in occupied Ukraine illustrates how Russia is transforming Ukrainian territories into a military rear designed to sustain its war against Ukraine.

Russia’s militarization of occupied Ukrainian territories began with the annexation of Crimea in March 2014. Shortly after the illegal annexation referendum, Russia started the construction of barracks and other military infrastructure in Crimea. Moscow also seized 13 enterprises belonging to Ukraine’s Ukroboronprom, a manufacturer of weapons and military hardware (Antikor, April 1, 2015; Black Sea News, November 3, 2022).

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Kremlin ramped up its efforts at turning Crimea into a heavily armed military platform (ArmyInform, April 21). In 2025, Russian forces held at least 70 military exercises across occupied Crimea, after holding 124 in 2024, demonstrating the peninsula’s continued role for Russian power projection during its war against Ukraine (Suspilne, January 29).

Much of Crimea’s civilian infrastructure, economy, and people now serve the needs of the Russian military. Russia has treated the Ukrainian territories it occupied after 2022 similarly, increasingly incorporating military training, logistics, industrial, and military-support zones.

In the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk oblasts, the Russian military has been using Ukrainian military training grounds and building new training bases since 2022 (Investigator, June 12, 2024; 24 Channel, April 13). Between 2022 and 2024, Russia developed seven military training grounds across the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts to prepare troops for its war against Ukraine (Donetsk News Agency, April 2, 2024).

Russian occupation authorities have begun constructing a major field camp to house Russian military personnel in the Melitopol district of Zaporizhzhia oblast since early this year (Ukrinform, February 11). They have paid particular attention to developing training facilities, including for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operators, building new drone training grounds, and implementing courses in schools and colleges.

Russia transformed occupied cities into military-support hubs. In Starobilsk, in occupied Luhansk oblast, Russian occupation authorities established a Federal Security Service (FSB) special-forces headquarters and a training center for UAV operators, including personnel linked to Russia’s Rubikon Center for Advanced Unmanned Technologies, a Russian military special unit whose representatives regularly strike civilians and civilian objects in Ukraine (Armyinform, May 23). Russia has also begun constructing UAVs in occupied Ukraine, using multiple seized Ukrainian facilities to manufacture components for drones for the Russian military (Institute for the Study of War, April 14, 2025; TSN, April 15, 2025).

Moscow has described Crimea as its only region with a full-cycle system for UAV training that begins with selecting talented schoolchildren for training and ends with helping them join the military reserves (Radio Svoboda, February 18). In February, Russia opened a training center for UAV operators in Crimea, the largest of its kind in any region neighboring Russia, offering a course lasting over 50 days. In the first cycle of its operation, more than 1,500 Russian servicemen completed the course under the close supervision of Russian military instructors (Komsomolskaya Pravda, February 13).

Russia has also converted Ukrainian educational facilities for direct military use. Russian forces placed heavy military equipment in schoolyards, used classrooms as military headquarters, and turned some school premises into sites for the illegal detention of civilians (Ukrinform, February 14). Russia has similarly converted civilian medical facilities for military use, turning hospitals into military hospitals and accommodation facilities for Russian troops while restricting or excluding civilian patients. Russian servicemen receive priority access to quality medical care, and medicines, equipment, and operating rooms are increasingly redirected toward the needs of the Russian military (NV.ua, September 21, 2025; ZN.ua, October 25, 2025; Freedom, February 20).

Russian occupation authorities have seized most resort facilities across occupied southern Ukraine, converting many boarding houses and sanatoriums into military facilities (LB.UA, July 19, 2024; UNIAN, April 28). In many cases, they have become home to Russian military personnel instead of tourists, including at resorts along the coasts of the Azov and Black Sea and on the Arabat Spit. In occupied Crimea, Russian occupation authorities have either closed or placed parts of the coastline under military supervision (Suspilne, April 17). They have also installed engineering and military infrastructure, transforming former resort areas into places that increasingly resemble frontline areas (Glavkom, June 9, 2024; Voice of Crimea, April 20).

The deployment of Russian troops in these facilities endangers the relatively few tourists who occupation authorities allow to visit the captured resorts by placing them in proximity to military personnel and infrastructure. This process is part of Russia’s nationalization strategy in the occupied territories, wherein recreation centers and hotels, particularly along the coast of the Azov Sea, are deemed “ownerless” and seized by occupation forces (LB.UA, October 25, 2024). Russian forces have also coerced civilians to support their military presence, forcing detained men to dig trenches and construct defensive positions while making women clean, wash clothes, and cook for Russian troops (Ukrainska Pravda, August 10).

By May, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced it had completed a comprehensive fortification system in occupied Kherson oblast (Interfax, May 3). The Russian military equipped a network of underground passages and camouflaged observation posts with modern video cameras with night vision and infrared channels, allowing its soldiers to move freely between positions, evade Ukrainian artillery strikes, and suddenly appear on the front lines. In July, satellite imagery revealed new fortifications in occupied Crimea, including near Armyansk, Mizhvodne, and Dzhankoi (Informator, July 29).

Russian forces are working on developing new fortified facilities as well as additional shelters for military equipment in occupied Ukraine as Ukrainian long-range strikes continue to threaten rear areas and logistics routes. By expanding military training facilities, converting civilian infrastructure, and constructing new fortifications, the Kremlin intends to entrench a military rear designed to support Russia’s prolonged war against Ukraine.

This article was originally published in Eurasia Daily Monitor.