Russia is quietly expelling anyone in occupied Luhansk who didn’t take a Russian passport

Russia deported 570 residents of occupied Luhansk Oblast in 2025 who had not obtained Russian citizenship, the Luhansk Oblast State Administration (ODA) reported on Facebook.

Occupation authorities have compiled deportation lists in every "municipality" in the region. "Who exactly Russians will pick tomorrow for a show deportation — unknown," the ODA stated.

The expulsions are selective: Russian forces continue to target those among the local population who declined to take a Russian passport, according to the administration.

Infrastructure in collapse

The occupied territory is also facing a deepening water infrastructure crisis. According to the ODA, around 900 km of water pipelines in the so-called "LNR" require urgent replacement. Overall degradation of the water supply network has surpassed 80%, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents without drinking water for indefinite periods every week due to constant breakdowns.

A remediation plan exists on paper. Its implementation deadline is 2030, with a possible extension to 2035 — meaning work on some critical sections will not begin for another eight to nine years, the ODA noted.

Frontline activity

On the military front, Russian forces conducted 11 assaults on the Lyman and Sloviansk directions, Luhansk Oblast Military Administration head Oleksiy Kharchenko reported.

"In particular, the enemy attacked five times on the Lyman sector. Six more — on the Sloviansk sector. Combat operations took place near five settlements. On the territory of our oblast, the enemy fired from automatic grenade launchers. It also actively used UAVs and FPV drones," Kharchenko said.

Children deportation

Official Ukrainian data puts the number of children who ended up in Russia or occupied territories since the start of the full-scale war at over 20,000. The range widens considerably from there. Ukraine's Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets has estimated that Russia illegally removed approximately 150,000 children from Ukraine. Ukraine's Parliamentary Commissioner for Children's Rights Darya Gerasymchuk has cited a figure of "several hundred thousand — somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000."

Russia's own children's ombudsman, Maria Lvova-Belova, stated in July 2023 that Russia had "accepted" approximately 4.8 million Ukrainian residents since the start of the full-scale invasion, including more than 700,000 children — claiming the majority arrived with parents or other relatives.