The Russian occupation of Kharkiv Oblast, officially the Kharkov Military–Civilian Administration, is an ongoing

military occupation Military occupation, also called belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is temporary hostile control exerted by a ruling power's military apparatus over a sovereign territory that is outside of the legal boundaries of that ruling pow ...

that began on 24 February 2022, after Russian forces invaded Ukraine and began capturing and occupying parts of

Kharkiv Oblast Kharkiv Oblast (, ), also referred to as Kharkivshchyna (), is an oblast (province) in eastern Ukraine. Kharkiv borders Luhansk Oblast to the east, Donetsk Oblast to the southeast, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to the southwest, Poltava Oblast to the w ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. Russian forces failed to capture the capital city of the oblast,

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

. However, other major cities including Izium,

Kupiansk Kupiansk or Kupyansk (, ; , ) is a city in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Kupiansk Raion. It is also an important railroad junction for the oblast. Kupiansk hosts the administration of Kupiansk urban hromada, ...

, and Balakliia were captured by Russian forces. As of November 2022, Russian forces only occupy a small portion of land in the Kharkiv Oblast. In early September 2022, Ukraine began a major counteroffensive, regaining several settlements in the region and ending numerous Russian military or military-civilian administrations.

Background

The city of Vovchansk and the town of

Velykyi Burluk Velykyi Burluk () is a rural settlement in Ukraine, in Kupiansk Raion of Kharkiv Oblast. It hosts the administration of Velykyi Burluk settlement hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. The population of the settlement is . The settlement was ...

came under Russian control on 24 February 2022, the first day of the Russian invasion. Shevchenkove came under Russian occupation on 26 February 2022. The city of Izium was captured by Russian forces on 1 April 2022, beginning the Russian

of the city.

History

In May 2022, a pro-Russian military-civilian administration was created for the Russian-controlled parts of

. Four military-civilian

raion A raion (also spelt rayon) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states. The term is used for both a type of subnational entity and a division of a city. The word is from the French (meaning 'honeycomb, department'), and is c ...

(district-level) administrations were also established for Kupiansk Raion, Izium Raion,

Kharkiv Raion Kharkiv Raion () is a raion (district) of Kharkiv Oblast in eastern Ukraine. Its capital (political), administrative center is the city of Kharkiv. Population: On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the number of rai ...

and Vovchansk Raion. Vitaly Ganchev, a former lieutenant colonel in the Ukrainian police, was made the head of the oblast military-civilian administration the same month. On 19 August Andrey Alekseyenko was appointed first deputy head of the Kharkiv Oblast military-civilian administration and Prime Minister. On 8 July 2022, Ganchev said that Kharkiv Oblast was an "inalienable" part of Russian territory and intended for Kharkiv Oblast to be annexed by the Russian Federation via referendum. But on 11 August, Ganchev told the Russia-24 TV channel that the authorities of the territories of the Kharkiv Oblast controlled by Russian troops are not yet ready to discuss a referendum on joining Russia, because "only 20 percent and no more" of the region is under Russian control. According to Ukrainian intelligence, before the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russia planned to hold a referendum in

in November, with a planned 75% vote in favour of joining Russia. Ukraine began a counteroffensive in the Kharkiv Oblast in early September. By 10 September 2022, Ukraine recaptured Izium, ending the military-civilian administration and Russian occupation of the city. By 11 September, Russia had withdrawn from most of the settlements it previously occupied in the oblast, including

, Vovchansk, Balakliia and Shevchenkove. The Russian Ministry of Defense also announced a formal withdrawal of Russian forces from all of Kharkiv Oblast west of the Oskil river stating that an "operation to curtail and transfer troops" was underway." The Kharkov Military-Civilian Administration, originally based in Kupiansk, briefly relocated to Vovchansk on 8 September 2022, but moved again before the city was recaptured by Ukrainian forces on 11 September 2022. By 18 September 2022, Russian forces only occupied a small strip of Kharkiv Oblast east of the Oskil. On 13 September 2022, Ukrainian forces had reportedly crossed the Oskil and had set up positions at multiple locations. On 3 October 2022, Russian forces fled from Nyzhche Solone, Pidlyman, Nyzhnia Zhuravka, Borova, and Shyikivka, allowing Ukrainian authorities to regain control of almost all of the oblast.

After the 2022 Ukrainian counteroffensive

In a February 2023 interview, Ganchev said that the military-civilian administration was continuing its work, and that about twenty settlements in the Kharkiv Oblast were still under Russian control. In a December 2024 interview, Ganchev said that there were about 2,000 civilians living in the Russian-controlled parts of Kharkiv Oblast, under frequent Ukrainian shelling and often without heat, electricity, and gas, due to the destruction of infrastructure over the course of the fighting. He said that a pro-Russian Kupiansk Raion military-civilian administration had continued its work even after the

2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive On September 6, 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched a major counteroffensive against the Russian military during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As Ukraine announced the start of the 2022 Kherson counteroffensive, Kherson counteroffensi ...

, and that at least 34 settlements in that area were under Russian control. Ganchev said that the administration provides the civilians there with social services and assistance in obtaining Russian citizenship, and that voting for the 2024 Russian presidential election was conducted in some settlements in the area. By November 2024, in the northeastern part of the Kharkiv Oblast, Russian forces crossed the Oskil River. On 28 January 2025, Russian officials claimed to have retaken the town of Dvorichna, which had a pre-war population of over 3,000 inhabitants. In March 2025, Ganchev said that while about 70 settlements in the Kharkiv Oblast were under Russian control, his administration still only exercised authority over 34 of them.

Human rights and humanitarian effect

According to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

,'' inhabitants of occupied Izium had survived in their basements for three weeks without electricity, heating or running water. The report also claimed that Russian soldiers had prepared lists of individuals to “hunt”: gun owners, wealthy people and others deemed “dangerous” such as businessmen, activists, military, and their families. The Russian army was also accused of barring passage of humanitarian convoys while food and medicine available in the city was running out.No safe way out of Izyum: ‘I can’t imagine how it will end’
,

(4 April 2022) Following the end of the Russian occupation on 10 September, multiple bodies were discovered in the town of , reportedly killed by Russian troops during the early days of the war.

Izium mass graves

Partisan and other resistance

On 3 April 2022, the Ukrainian government stated that two Russian soldiers were killed and 28 others hospitalized after Ukrainian civilians handed out poisoned cakes to Russian soldiers of the Russian 3rd Motor Rifle Division in Izium. On 11 July 2022, the Russian-appointed military-civilian administration leader of

, Yevgeny Yunakov, was assassinated in a

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

ing. On 23 November 2023 the Russian-appointed deputy head of the occupation administration Oleksandr Slisarenko was killed when his car exploded in Belgorod,

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. An anonymous source told ''

Ukrainska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' is a Ukrainian socio-political online media outlet founded by Heorhii Gongadze in April 2000. After Gongadze’s death in September 2000, the editorial team was led by co-founder Olena Prytula, who remained the editor-in ...

'' that the Security Service of Ukraine was responsible for his killing.

Control of settlements

Notes

References

{{2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine