How residents of occupied Crimea are being "lured into war with benefits and deception"

Land by the sea, family benefits, priority service in hospitals, rehabilitation in sanatoriums in occupied Crimea, and government jobs. Such benefits are promised to the Russian military for participating in the invasion of Ukraine. The longer the military operations last, the Crimean peninsula is increasingly becoming a territory where more and more people are serving in the Russian military. What is happening, we tell in the material of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty project Krim.Realii.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, occupied Crimea has become a Russian hub where closed-loop processes are taking place: there they transfer production to military rails, from there the military is sent to the front and there they are rehabilitated after injuries, and even promised positions in the government. But behind the public promises of all sorts of benefits for the Russian military, their real cost is not mentioned.

"Supporting the SVO is an absolute priority"

The Moscow-controlled Crimean authorities have been supporting the Russian army since the first days of the Russian Federation's all-out invasion of Ukraine. This includes the main government bodies and key enterprises.
According to official data alone, about twenty local industrial enterprises are working to supply the Russian army in Crimea. They produce structures for military fortifications and military equipment.
"In essence, on the battlefields of the "SVO" zone (as the Russian Federation calls its all-out invasion of Ukraine - ed.) the fate of each of us, the fate of our children, is being decided. Support for the participants of the “SVO” and their families is an absolute priority of state policy,” says the Russian head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov.
Many facilities that had a social purpose have been transferred to the priority service of the Russian army. Participants of military operations against Ukraine in Crimea have been granted the right to free travel on public transport, credit benefits (the possibility of deferring loan payments without charging fines and penalties), tax and insurance deferrals, free higher education and registration of land plots on the Crimean peninsula.
The Russian authorities in Crimea promise families of Russian soldiers priority in enrolling children in kindergartens and health camps, as well as providing hot meals in schools.
In Crimea, a campaign was also launched in 2025 to attract participants in the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine to local authorities. But in practice, it turned out that soldiers who returned from the front can count on seats in village and district councils.

Mud treatment, baths and excursions

Priority service is provided to participants of the war with Ukraine in hospitals, sanatoriums and boarding houses in Crimea.
In Crimea, there is periodic talk of a shortage of hospital beds for patients due to the large number of wounded Russian soldiers.
Local authorities under Moscow’s control do not report anything about this.
Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to local authorities, several thousand Russian soldiers and their families have recovered in hotels and sanatoriums on the peninsula.
Since 2023, Crimean sanatoriums have begun rehabilitating Russian soldiers with serious injuries as part of the Russian “Restart” project. Participants of the war with Ukraine are being treated in two Crimean sanatoriums with grants from the Russian Presidential Foundation and with the support of the Russian authorities of the Crimean peninsula.
Among those who underwent rehabilitation in Crimea is the head of the “SVO” veteran escort service of the “People’s Front” central headquarters, “military correspondent” of the Russian “First Channel” Irina Kuksenkova. She was treated at the Saksky sanatorium.
She remembers that she was brought there by car, because it was difficult for her to move, and after the end of the treatment she left the sanatorium on foot.
“We designated Crimea for such guys who received brain and spinal cord injuries. Because everything there is designed for a person to recover as quickly as possible, even if they received serious injuries,” she said during a video conference in Simferopol in October.
In total, two Crimean sanatoriums are involved in the rehabilitation program for participants in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. Almost 300 soldiers underwent rehabilitation there.
The rehabilitation course for them includes medicinal baths, mud therapy, massage, mineral inhalations, physical therapy, physiotherapy, halotherapy, lymphatic drainage and other specialized and general health procedures. Also, excursions to the sights of the Crimean peninsula are organized for wounded Russian soldiers. Some participants in the program admit that it was during rehabilitation that they first saw the sea and felt the healing properties of the local mud.

“Recruitment through pressure and manipulation”

Generous public promises and benefits at the expense of the state to the Russian army are intended to serve as advertising and a way to send new contract soldiers from among civilians to the war against Ukraine, according to the Representation of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
“The territory of the Crimean peninsula is still being used by the occupiers as a means of providing “material assistance” to Russian military personnel, through which food, camouflage nets, diesel generators, etc. are sent. The occupiers continue to recruit the population into the ranks of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and promise support to the participants in the war against Ukraine and their families. They are allegedly provided with social, legal and targeted assistance, medical and psychological rehabilitation, with the occupied Crimea being used as a base for the treatment of Russian military personnel participating in hostilities in other regions of Ukraine,” their statement said.
Since 2022, Russia has been actively using various methods to involve citizens in military operations against Ukraine. Mobile brigades have been operating in Crimea, providing on-site advice on military service.
Such mobile points “are located in a number of settlements and neighborhoods, including in places of compact residence of Crimean Tatars,” the Crimean Tatar Resource Center notes.
“People are lured with material benefits from serving in the ranks of the Russian army. They promise that contract workers will have additional opportunities to obtain land plots. Financial payments are just one of the recruitment tools. In addition, propaganda and psychological pressure are used, forced mobilization, deception regarding the terms of the contract and terms of service, manipulation through debts and social status,” the CTR said.
It is not known for certain how many Crimeans have died in the ranks of the Russian army since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Russian authorities do not disclose this data.
Krim.Realii managed to identify more than 1.5 thousand Russian soldiers from the Crimean peninsula who died during hostilities against Ukraine.
The Representation of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea claims that at least 2,100 Russian soldiers from units deployed in Crimea have died. Of these, 1,300 were probably Ukrainian citizens, the department notes.
The number of those killed in Crimea may be higher, given that most of the Russian soldiers on the peninsula were buried without publicity.