According to Ukrainian media reports, on February 27, the mayor of
Kupyansk,
Kharkiv Oblast, Gennady Matsegora (Геннадій Мацегора) negotiated with the
Russian army to surrender the city without bloodshed, and in return he will remain as mayor of the city.[1]
According to international media reports, on March 12, the Russian army set up a temporary administrative agency in
Melitopol and appointed
Galina Danilchenko as the mayor of the city, while the elected Ukrainian mayor,
Ivan Fedorov, was arrested by the Russian army.[2]
According to
Sergei Tsekov, a member of the
Federation Council, the purpose of the establishment by the Russian military of administrative branches in the occupied areas is to maintain people's livelihoods and optimize the management of settlements and territories, like maintaining hospitals, housing operations, human services and emergency services. The government of the occupied territory will provide food, receive and organize humanitarian aid and, in certain cases, may perform the functions of a law enforcement agency if necessary.[5]
However, a teacher from the Russian General Staff Military Academy told
BBC News Russian that the Russian military authorities were performing their supposed duties of providing for the occupied cities and that residents, while officials of the occupied areas also reported shortages of local food and agricultural products.[6]
In order to intimidate civilians and weaken their will to resist, the Russian army often kidnapped local officials.[7] After the beginning of Russian occupation in Kherson Oblast, almost half of the inhabitants left the city of Kherson, and one in five left Kherson Oblast entirely. Many of those who remained initially took part in
pro-Ukrainian rallies, but later became diminished with reports of large-scale
kidnappings,
tortures,
robberies and
rapes by the Russian military.[8] The Russian army prohibited people living in the occupied areas from traveling to Ukrainian-controlled areas, allegedly deported nearly 900,000 Ukrainian citizens to Russia,[9] which the
Kremlin insists were humanitarian evacuations.[10] There were also reports that Russian authorities detained many Ukrainians in
filtration camps.[11]
In addition, the Russian army regularly intimidates or kidnaps journalists,[12] forcing them to carry out
propaganda for Russia.
Lyudmila Denisova, the Ukrainian commissioner for human rights of the
Verkhovna Rada, accused the Russian army of "establishing terror and
censorship" in the occupied territories.[13] There are reports that the Russian military has forced university students in
DPR and
LPR-controlled areas to collectively donate blood for wounded Russian soldiers,[14] which is a violation against the
Geneva Conventions if proven true.
Russian forces removed the
Ukrainian flag in the occupied areas. In
Yakymivka,
Zaporizhzhia Oblast, they forced a local resident who had taken down the
Russian flag to apologize to the camera. The occupied territory is trying to replace the
Ukrainian hryvnia with the
Russian ruble,[15] and also issues Russian passports in the occupied territory.[16] In addition, Ukrainian-language channels have largely stopped broadcasts in the occupied areas, and television towers have been replaced by
Russian-language channels.[17]