OPINION: One million civilians under Russian occupation, cut off from basic services

OPINION: One million civilians under Russian occupation, cut off from basic services

Introduction: A number that should stop negotiators cold

The reality documented by the UN

A report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published in January 2026 establishes that approximately one million civilians are living in Ukrainian territories under Russian occupation, "largely cut off from basic services and protection mechanisms." These people live under severe movement restrictions and in constant danger. Without reliable drinking water, without regular electricity, without medical access, without secure communications, without the protection of Ukrainian law — and under the occupation of an army that practices systematic repression.

This figure of one million arrives in a specific context: the opening, on June 15, 2026 in Luxembourg, of formal negotiations on the fundamental principles of Ukraine's accession to the European Union — the rule of law, fundamental freedoms, democratic institutions. Journalist Zarina Zabriskie argues that the way Ukraine treats these civilians upon their return from occupation is "a direct test" of those same values. The accession process and the occupation policy are not separate. They are the same question.

Kherson Oblast: the microcosm of civilian tragedy

The only region fully occupied then partially liberated

Kherson Oblast occupies a particular place in this analysis. It is the only Ukrainian region that was fully occupied — from March to November 2022 — and then partially liberated. Today, more than 70% of the region remains under occupation. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians are still there, waiting for the occupation to end, as it ended for 30% of the region in 2022. Evhen Hilin, a candidate in law and head of the community organization "Misto Syly" (City of Strength) in Kherson, describes Kherson Oblast as "particularly revealing" of the Ukrainian legal gap for civilians returning from occupation.

Most of the residents who remain in the occupied zones of Kherson are elderly people, families with children who could not leave, or people attached to their land and their homes. They are not collaborators — they are victims of an occupation they did not choose. Yet upon returning to Ukrainian-controlled territory, they face a legal void: Ukrainian law does not provide a specific procedure for their reintegration. They return to a country that has no formal mechanism to receive them.

Ukraine's legal gap: a challenge for European integration

No formal procedure for returning civilians

Journalist Zarina Zabriskie, in her column published on Ukrainska Pravda on June 27, 2026 (originally published in Byline Times on June 16), identifies a precise legal problem: Ukrainian law does not provide a distinct legal procedure for civilians returning from occupation. There is no clearly defined mechanism for identity verification, rehabilitation, and reintegration. This gap creates two sets of risks: human rights violations for traumatized people who cannot access the services they need, and a national security risk if Russian influence agents slip in among returning civilians without a robust verification mechanism.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had interviewed 278 civilians who survived Russian occupation. These people had suffered torture, detention, or prolonged exposure to violence. Their specific needs are not being met because "support programs are fragmented, incomplete, and accessible only to certain groups." Article 14 of the UN Convention Against Torture guarantees victims a right to rehabilitation — a right that Ukraine has committed to respecting but that its current legal framework does not fully implement.

The invisible trauma of months under drones and mines

The mental health of civilians from the right bank of Kherson

Civilians from the occupied parts of Kherson Oblast carry severe psychological trauma: months under drone attacks and mine threats, hunger and the absence of basic services — water, electricity, gas, heating, communications, medical care. These people arrive in free territory with invisible wounds that social and medical services struggle to address. If they are immediately subjected to conditions that recall detention, or to military verification without prior medical assessment, their conditions can deteriorate dramatically.

Trauma psychology researchers are clear: the reintegration of people who have suffered prolonged occupation requires time, trained professionals, and an approach that respects individual dignity. Prioritizing security verification without simultaneously offering psychological and social support is inverting the priorities. It is not only inhumane — it is counterproductive: unhealed people become long-term public health and social burdens. Treating them as suspects first and patients second is both wrong and strategically self-defeating.

The documentation problem: 12% without identity papers

A practical obstacle to reintegration

The OHCHR report of 2026 reveals that 12% of internally displaced persons from occupied territories possess no official documents — no birth certificates, no passports. These people were unable to obtain or renew their Ukrainian documents during the occupation. The report notes that "Ukrainian authorities have not yet established a simplified administrative procedure for the issuance of birth and death certificates that occurred in occupied territories, although this is in principle provided for under Ukrainian law."

This administrative gap creates a vicious cycle: without documents, people cannot access public services, social assistance, healthcare, housing. Without access to these services, their reintegration into Ukrainian society is compromised. And without successful reintegration, the risk that some individuals — manipulated or vulnerable — might be used as vectors of Russian influence increases. Solving the documentation problem is therefore not merely a bureaucratic matter — it is a national security matter. The simplest lever available and the most neglected.

What Ukraine must do — and what the EU can require

A national strategy for civilians returning from occupation

The OHCHR recommends the adoption of a new national strategy on internal displacement that "takes into account the particular needs and vulnerabilities of persons displaced from occupied territories." This strategy should provide a formal procedure for returning civilians — including a rehabilitation and reintegration period with full access to legal aid and social services before any decision concerning mobilization. Identity verification, document renewal, medical examinations, and mental state assessment should take place during this period.

The European Union, within the framework of its accession negotiations with Ukraine, holds an important lever. The fundamental freedom, democratic institutions, and rule of law — the values of the first negotiating cluster opened in Luxembourg on June 15 — must apply concretely to the most vulnerable people. Ukrainian NGOs and researchers are asking the EU to integrate this requirement into its dialogue with Kyiv. That would be consistent with the values Ukraine is seeking to join. Consistency is the credibility test of any accession process.

The demographic question: families choosing to stay

The cost of the legal void on family decisions

The absence of a clear policy for returning civilians has concrete demographic consequences: some families choose to remain in occupied zones because of the uncertainty about their prospects in free territory. They ask themselves: what awaits us on the other side? What rights will we have? How will we reintegrate into Ukrainian society after four and a half years of separation? Ukraine currently has no clear institutional answer to these questions. That absence of an answer is itself an answer — one that can discourage returns.

Children remain in occupied zones under bombardment, drone attacks, and humanitarian deprivation. Adults remain out of attachment to their homes, their land, their memories. The longer people remain under occupation, the deeper the Russification process goes, the more complex their future reintegration becomes. Every month of legal void on the Ukrainian side is another month that the Russian occupation uses to transform these people. The urgency is real. The mechanism to address it is a legislative session away.

National security and the risk of Russian manipulation

How a verification void creates vulnerabilities

Russia inherited Soviet and KGB methods for infiltrating influence agents into adversary populations. People returning from occupation zones — after being exposed to Russian propaganda, after potentially being approached, recruited, or coerced into cooperating with the occupier — require a systematic verification and debriefing period. Not to be treated as suspects, but to identify those who may have been manipulated, offer them support, and protect Ukrainian networks from infiltration.

Such a verification mechanism, properly implemented with rights guarantees, would strengthen national security — not compromise it. It would also allow the collection of testimony about war crimes committed in occupied zones. According to journalist Zabriskie, "the collection of war crime testimony would also serve Ukraine's interests." These witnesses returning from occupation are living archives of Russian violations. Identifying, protecting, and documenting them is both a legal and a strategic imperative. The testimony is evidence. The evidence is irreplaceable.

Conclusion: One million people the negotiators must not forget

The war is not only on the front-line map

When Western chancelleries discuss scenarios for "peace" or "conflict freeze," when special envoys draw lines on maps, this million civilians under occupation is rarely at the center of the conversation. They should be. Any arrangement that leaves these people indefinitely under Russian occupation — without water, without electricity, without a doctor, without rights — is not a peace. It is a capitulation dressed up as pragmatism. The map can have a line. These people cannot be the cost of drawing it.

What Ukraine owes its citizens under occupation

Ukraine owes these people more than a hypothetical future liberation. It owes them a policy that says clearly: when you return, here is how we receive you, here are your rights, here are the services you can access, here is how we document what you endured. This is not altruism — it is the definition of a state governed by law. And it is exactly the test that European integration imposes on Ukraine. The time to pass it is now — while the accession negotiations give it leverage, urgency, and an international audience.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist

Columnist's transparency note

Editorial positioning

This opinion piece is written by a columnist who supports Ukraine in its resistance to Russian occupation and who considers the protection of civilians under occupation to be a moral and legal obligation of the Ukrainian state and the international community. The author draws on the column by Zarina Zabriskie published on Ukrainska Pravda, which itself is based on the OHCHR report of January 2026.

Important nuances

This opinion piece criticizes certain gaps in Ukrainian policy toward civilians returning from occupation. This criticism is formulated from the position of someone who supports Ukraine and recognizes the extraordinary conditions under which it operates — a war of aggression, constant pressure, limited resources. The criticism does not weaken support for Ukraine — it asks Ukraine to live up to its own values. That is a higher form of support.

Sources

Primary sources

Ukrainska Pravda — Zarina Zabriskie: Return of Civilians from Occupation — a Challenge for European Integration — June 27, 2026

Secondary sources

Kyiv Independent — Ukraine Brings Back More Than 40 Children from Occupied Territories — June 23, 2026

Ukrainska Pravda — Russians Have Categorised Around 25,000 Apartments in Mariupol as Ownerless — June 26, 2026

ISW — Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, June 26, 2026 — June 26, 2026

United24 Media — Belarus Context: Russian Occupation Policies — June 24, 2026

NATO Association of Canada — Context: The Human Cost of Russia's War — June 26, 2026