GUR: Russia has reduced the population of the Donetsk region by almost a third in 10 years and is massively populating it with its own citizens

Over the past 10 years, the population of the Donetsk region has decreased by almost a third due to Russia. While in 2001 there were about 7.37 million people living in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, by the beginning of 2024 there were approximately 3.75 million people left.

This was reported by the Main Intelligence Directorate (known as GUR).

GUR explains this by war, repression, forced Russification, mobilization into the Russian army, deterioration of medical and social services, and lack of protection of property rights, which is why Ukrainians continue to leave the occupation.

At the same time, Russia is actively bringing its own citizens into the occupied territories. As of July 2026, there are 200 000-300 000 ethnic Russians in occupied Crimea and Sevastopol. By 2042, the Kremlin plans to resettle another 130 000 Russians to Sevastopol alone.

According to GUR, as of 2024, there were 200 000 ethnic Russians and about 100 000 labor migrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus in the occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions. Since the beginning of 2026 alone, about 10 000 more such migrants have been registered in the occupied Donetsk region.

Officials sent to the occupied territories are paid double their salaries, as well as compensation for housing rent. In total, they can earn over $5 000 per month, more than eight times the average salary in Russia.

In addition, housing and land plots taken from Ukrainians are being transferred to the Russians. In 2025, four thousand land plots were distributed to Russian army soldiers in occupied Crimea.

According to the GUR, the Kremlin plans to increase the population of the Mariupol and Kalmyk districts from 228 thousand to 518 thousand people by 2035, in particular by resettling Russian citizens.

• In 2024, Ukraine ranked first in the world in terms of mortality and at the same time last in terms of birth rate. According to the US Central Intelligence Agency, the mortality rate in Ukraine is 18.6 per thousand citizens — six children are born per thousand people.

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