Cossack Organizations Suppress Ukrainian Identity in Occupied Territories

Cossack Organizations Suppress Ukrainian Identity in Occupied Territories Cossack Organizations Suppress Ukrainian Identity in Occupied Territories Executive Summary: - Moscow is utilizing the Cossack image and organizations to suppress Ukrainian identity in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. Russian bodies like Russia’s Federal Nationalities Ministry (FADN) portray Cossacks in the occupied territories as a loyal military-social class aligned with Russian narratives. - Cossack organizations in the occupied territories of Ukraine are becoming a significant part of Kremlin-managed civil society in the occupied territories of Ukraine, where they engage with other Cossack groups, security roles, and administrative functions. - One major focus of Cossack groups in the occupied territories of Ukraine is youth indoctrination and education. Cossack groups recruit young people, shape curricula, and promote pro-Kremlin ideology, aiming to cultivate a generation that identifies with Russia rather than Ukraine. Cossack societies are assisting Russian occupation authorities throughout Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. In Zaporizhzhia in January, the department for transport under the Ministry for Internal Affairs held a “working meeting” with the Chernihivka Cossack organization, where they discussed the practical aspects of Cossacks providing security at transportation hubs (Telegram/@dneprorudnoetoday, January 26). In Berdiansk, Cossacks collected humanitarian aid for a local hospital (VK/Administratsiia Berdiaskovo Gorodskovo Okruga, March 10). So too in Kherson oblast, a Cossack organization restored memorials to Soviet World War II heroes in the village of Novotroitskii (OK/Administratsiia Novotroitskovo Munitsipal’novo Okruga, May 5, 2025). Cossacks throughout the temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine are helping the Russian authorities to function. Moscow is utilizing the Cossack image and organizations to suppress Ukrainian identity in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, various small Cossack societies existed in the region. The role of these Cossack organizations has largely been underappreciated in the West, despite Novaya Gazeta running an article subtitled “Russia’s Federal Nationalities Ministry (FADN) transformed into an agency for Cossack Affairs in the occupied territories” in 2023 (Novaya Gazeta, November 28, 2023). Russian President Vladimir Putin created the FADN in 2015 with a remit to “assist the realization of government policies in the sphere of inter-ethnic and ethno-confessional relations and measures aimed at strengthening the unity of the multiethnic Russian nation” (FADN, March 31, 2015). In practice, this meant combating “extremism” through internet monitoring. After the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the FADN became one of the legitimating forces for the Russian narrative inside the occupied territories. Former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer and Duma Deputy Igor Baranov said, “The incompetent, and perhaps even biased formulation of national policy in Ukraine has led to the country effectively disintegrating, splintering into various components. This is precisely what forced us to launch the special military operation” (Novaya Gazeta, November 28, 2023). Baranov claimed that some Ukrainian citizens were fighting for Russia as Cossacks and the FADN should accordingly set up a system of Cossack organizations in the occupied territories (Novaya Gazeta, November 28, 2023). The FADN, to recruit more people into Cossack organizations, defines the Cossacks as a military social class (soslovie, сословие) rather than an ethnic group. Baranov’s aspirations seem to be coming to fruition with the Kremlin’s establishment of a “south western” department of FADN in 2023 to promote the “rebirth of the Cossacks” in the occupied territories of Ukraine (Rossiiskoe Kazachestvo, April 4, 2025). Formal relations between the Russian authorities and the leaders of Cossack societies in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine are increasing daily. In the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson oblast, the first village (stanista, станица) Cossack society joined the Russian register of Cossack societies in February (VsKO, February 24). In Ukraine’s Russia-occupied Luhansk oblast, the Cossack “Stone Ford” (Kamennyi Brod, Каменный Брод) society also joined the register as part of the Don Cossack Host in August 2025 (VsKO, August 8, 2025). The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation had registered ten Cossack societies in Luhansk by March 2025 (Luganskii Informatsionyi Tsentr, March 18, 2025). Kremlin-aligned Cossack societies and authorities in the occupied territories of Ukraine are increasing their horizontal interactions with Cossack societies inside Russia in addition to working vertically with the Russia-wide Cossack organization. The acting head of the Russian-occupied Kalanchak District in Kherson oblast met with the ataman of a Cossack society in Krasnodar on March 25 and agreed to “inter-regional cooperation and strengthening friendly ties” (Telegram/@vgakalanchak, March 25). Cossack organizations are appearing as a significant part of Kremlin-managed civil society in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Cossack organizations in the occupied territories of Ukraine are focusing on youth recruitment and the consolidation of pro-Kremlin ideology in their ranks. Vladimir Bodachesvky, leader of the “Karachun” Cossack youth organization in Donetsk, said that the Cossack societies in occupied Donetsk should be admitted to the national Russian Cossack movement as its “14th army” (VsKO, March 2). Bodachesvky claimed that the “Novorossiya Cossacks are counting on the youth” and that Cossack societies in Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk oblast are experiencing a “rapid revival.” The push to popularize Cossack groups in Donetsk included trips with youth and sporting events designed to integrate them into the occupation’s social fabric (VsKO, March 2). In March 2025, Cossack groups in occupied Luhansk came together to discuss the revival of Cossack youth organizations and the best way to ensure a patriotic upbringing for children (Luganskii Informatsionyi Tsentr, March 18, 2025). Moscow is also using Cossack organizations to promote Kremlin narratives in education (see EDM, October 14, 30, 2025, January 14). University-level educational institutions in the Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts are scheduled to enter the Association of Cossack Universities (VsKO, December 9, 2025). Cossack Cadets Corps organizations are also developing rapidly in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. One Luhansk Cossack Cadets Corps organization, named for Soviet Air Marshal Alexander Efimov, held a veterans day parade outside the home of a veteran from World War II in May 2025 (VK/Luganskii Informatsionnyi Tsentr, May 7, 2025). As of October 2024, the occupied territory in the Luhansk oblast had 52 Cossack classes at 28 educational institutions for a total of 1,300 students (Russian Presidential Grants, accessed March 28). Cossack organizations in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine are growing as Russia consolidates its administrative control. They are particularly working with youth groups and education to try to raise a generation for whom Russia, and not Ukraine, is the motherland. While it is not clear whether this revival is even across all the occupied territories of Ukraine, the process of Cossack rebirth—or invention—appears to be more developed in the Luhansk oblast than in the other regions.