All in the house: how the new regions have changed three years after reunification with the Russian Federation

September 30 marks the Day of the Reunification of Donbass and Novorossiya with Russia. Over the past three years, their appearance has changed significantly: schools, hospitals, sports complexes, good roads have appeared, and local residents have begun to receive pensions and other social benefits. Nevertheless, life on the front line remains difficult: regular shelling has to be endured, and electricity and water are cut off in cities from time to time. And yet people believe that these difficulties will end, because their choice was absolutely conscious. How the new regions have transformed, why the restoration of Donbass will be included in the history textbooks and what problems still need to be solved — in the Izvestia article.

The third anniversary of reunification with new regions

September 30 marks three years since the reunification with Russia of four new regions — the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions. On this day in 2022, President Vladimir Putin and the heads of the regions signed international agreements on the incorporation of these subjects into the Russian Federation. This was preceded by referendums, which were held on September 23-27 of the same year.

The overwhelming majority of those who voted were in favor of joining the Russian Federation: in the DPR — 99.23% of the referendum participants with a turnout of 97.51%, in the LPR — 98.42% with a turnout of 94.15%, in Zaporozhye — 93.11% with a turnout of 85.4%, in the Kherson region — 87.05% with a turnout of 76.86%.

Some States have already supported this decision. On July 30, Nicaragua recognized all four constituent entities of the Russian Federation, becoming the first country in Latin America to make such a decision. Moreover, a week ago in Moscow, the parties signed agreements on trade and economic cooperation. The independence of the DPR and LPR in Nicaragua was supported back in February 2022. The same position was taken by Syria and North Korea, as well as partially recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The issue of security is still relevant. So far, it has not been possible to completely liberate the regions from the AFU troops, but the Russian Armed Forces are successfully pushing back the front line. In May 2025, it was decided to create a buffer security zone along the border of the Russian Federation and Ukraine. "Our Armed Forces are currently solving this problem," the president said at the time. The Russian Federation continues the process of creating a buffer zone, Rodion Miroshnik, the ambassador-at-large for crimes of the Kiev regime of the Russian Foreign Ministry, tells Izvestia.

— The LPR is the most liberated territory. But if a buffer zone is being created in the north of the LPR in the advance to the Kharkiv region, then it is not possible to do this in the west, north-west, because military operations are underway there. The same Kremen district is under constant massive shelling. Progress is needed there, and everyone understands perfectly well that if the enemy is not pushed back at least 30-40 km, then there will be no peace in these territories," the diplomat told Izvestia.

Alexey Zhuravlev, First Deputy chairman of the Defense Committee, emphasizes that the Russian Federation has certain successes in both Sumy and Kharkiv regions, and the most important thing here is not the speed of progress, but the scale of the destruction of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

— They are very impressive there, and there are always difficulties with the area itself, which should be vacated. After all, its size depends on what kind of weapons the West will supply to the Armed Forces. Now, as far as I understand, we are already talking about the supply of American Tomahawks," he told Izvestia.

How is the recovery going?

Rodion Miroshnik noted that roads, water and energy supplies have been restored in Luhansk, which is located at a distance of 100 km from the line of contact.

— The situation has changed significantly there. Enormous amounts of restoration work have been deployed in territories that are not close to the front, and this significantly affects the Territory's ability to grow economically and provide social security. Therefore, people who do not live in the frontline zone have certainly felt tremendous changes that did not exist before 2014," he added.

The restoration of Mariupol and the Azov region has become a serious achievement in the DPR, Miroshnik noted. "Work is actively underway there, and people living there feel relatively safe, see the restoration of infrastructure, financial investments, and feel how a normal peaceful life is being built," the diplomat said.

The largest construction project to restore infrastructure in the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions started almost immediately after their reunification with the Russian Federation. In November 2022, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it "large-scale." And so it turned out: today 82 regions of the Russian Federation, 41 federal agencies, as well as 26 state-owned companies are involved in this work. In total, since 2022, according to the Ministry of Construction, more than 23 thousand capital construction facilities have been restored.

— A big event — they began to build new housing. This has not been seen here for decades, and now the apartments have been sold out long before they were commissioned. There is a place to live and work, people are returning, the republic is alive," Senator from the DPR Daria Lantratova told Izvestia.

At the same time, in 2022, a serious problem was revealed: about 30 thousand builders were missing. Nevertheless, by 2025, the shortage of personnel was overcome: a large number of construction companies were involved in the work, said Sergey Pakhomov, deputy and chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services. Vladimir Putin is regularly informed about the success of the construction by the heads of new regions.

In September, the head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, said that residential buildings, schools, bridges and roads were being actively restored in the republic. As an example, he cited the Severodonetsk agglomeration, where more than 800 objects were restored to their original form. In total, 34 bridges were repaired in the region and 54% of roads were put in good condition. But there is still a lot of work to do: for example, about 96% of the facilities in Lugansk Popasnaya were destroyed.

"The roads within Donetsk have become noticeably better, they were really in a state of decline at some point, because these are roads that have withstood the load of military equipment passing along it," said Anna Revyakina, a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. She also noted the illuminated and smooth highway to Mariupol.

There is no doubt that the active pace of recovery will continue. In 2026-2030, according to the Ministry of Construction, it is planned to restore another 12,915 capital construction facilities.

— The restoration of Donbass will go down in textbooks as an unprecedented project, comparable to the post-war reconstruction of the USSR and Europe. The difference is that Europe was rebuilt with loans from the United States, and Donbass is being raised from the ruins that Ukraine left there by the whole of Russia – half of the country is involved in construction and modernization. A new word: the restoration of frontline areas — the front line is shifting and work begins. This has also never happened in world history," political analyst Dmitry Yelovsky told Izvestia.

Healthcare, sports, and social guarantees

Special attention is paid to the healthcare sector. In June, the president noted that since 2022, over 290 such facilities have been restored and built in the regions. So, in the clinical hospital named after Kalinin Vascular Center has started operating in Donetsk. According to the estimates of the head of the republic Denis Pushilin, his introduction was much anticipated, as the number of citizens suffering from cardiovascular diseases continues to grow. The construction of a regional hospital for children with 240 beds is also being completed in the Zaporozhye region, said the head of the region, Evgeny Balitsky. About 300 specialists will work there, and it is planned to open it early next year.

Despite the difficult situation, there are more and more young people in the regions. For example, there are now over 55,000 students in Zaporizhia, although there were 50,000 as early as 2023, which may indicate that people are returning home.

Sports are also not ignored. For example, in 2024, the first universal sports ground was opened in Lugansk, which combines areas for basketball, volleyball and street workout. At the same time, it became known that the city administration's immediate plans include three more multifunctional sports zones, as well as places for citizens to relax. In September of this year, the Yunost sports complex opened in the DPR after a large-scale restoration. It has become a key sports facility in the city of Dokuchaevsk, where almost 250 children go to practice.

— There are already more than 20 new and renovated sports facilities in the LPR. Even in the frontline town of Severodonetsk, which was destroyed by 90% under the blows of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and completely covered with mines, a new football school was opened. On September 1, the children went to the 17th school there. She has a difficult fate, the building was badly damaged by the shelling of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the children were deprived of the opportunity to study properly due to the constant attacks of the enemy. But thanks to the efforts of the regional chief, the school has become a real gem," said Daria Lantratova.

In addition, after reunification with the Russian Federation, residents of the new regions received the same social guarantees and benefits as millions of Russians. Since March 1, 2023, pensions and additional social security have been paid there according to Russian standards. The new rules apply to people who permanently resided in these regions at the time of their incorporation into the Russian Federation, as well as those who came to Russia from these regions earlier. At the same time, the authorities are actively helping citizens to make payments. For example, about 17,000 pensioners who either faced the loss of documents or were physically unable to reach the fund's office will receive them by the end of 2025, the governor of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, promised earlier.

— If under the Ukrainian regime people saw only consumer attitudes, "squeezing" resources, then today everything has changed. Residents of the reunified regions realized that they had become citizens of a just, social state that took care of them. They have felt stability, support, and can make plans for the future. Today, the pace of the republic's recovery is ahead of all possible forecasts," said Daria Lantratova.

What difficulties do residents of new regions face?

Nevertheless, new territories continue to be regularly shelled by Ukraine. The other day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked an electrical substation in the Kherson region, which left residents of the village of Vasilyevka without electricity. On September 27, all of Zaporizhia was left without electricity for a short time, Evgeny Balitsky reported.

— There are still many tasks ahead, the most important of which is the victory over the Kiev regime. But peaceful life cannot be put on pause, so every day we work to rebuild towns and villages, increase the pace of housing construction, develop heavy industry and agriculture. We can do all this," says Daria Lantratova.

According to Balitsky, due to regular shelling in the region, there are losses among medical personnel and paramedics. At the meeting with the president, he noted that the problem of shortage of personnel in medicine is acute, and it needs to be addressed. In the LPR, for example, the Zemsky Doctor and Zemsky Paramedic programs have been expanded: now you can change jobs once within the contract without losing income, Daria Lantratova recalled. At the same time, payments have also been doubled: 2 million rubles for doctors and 1 million rubles for nurses.

The condition of the water supply remains a serious problem in the new regions, and especially in Donetsk. At a meeting with Vladimir Putin on August 4, the head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, said that due to network wear, water losses in some places reach 60%. In this regard, the authorities are reducing the filing schedule. "Water is a systemic problem. The whole city lives in a water schedule," said Anna Revyakina.

— But it is important that the regional authorities do not stop, they are looking for non-standard solutions to personnel problems: they attract veterans, retrain them, and send them to work in various fields, — Dmitry Yelovsky confirmed.

Due to the fighting in the regions, there are environmental problems. In particular, forests are burning out due to constant fires. In this regard, the LPR has incurred the most expenses under the heading "Environmental well-being," Leonid Pasechnik told the president. According to him, the authorities plan to carry out serious work on cleaning reservoirs, providing residents with clean drinking water and restoring forest plantings. In addition, part of the funds will be used for mine reclamation.

At the same time, the trend in the four regions is changing today: previously, there were mainly requests to move the line of contact, adjust the supply of water and light, but now more and more proposals are related to the support of entrepreneurs and a comfortable urban environment, Daria Lantratova concluded.