Russia’s remote Far Eastern territories are becoming the focal point of what Ukrainian intelligence describes as a gradual foreign takeover, with China and North Korea tightening their economic and demographic grip on a region that makes up nearly half of the Russian Federation’s landmass.
According to a recent assessment by Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Moscow’s inability to sustain development in the Far East is leaving vast swaths of territory open to outside control. The agency warned that, over time, the Kremlin could lose effective authority over as much as 40 percent of its national territory. That is an area approaching seven million square kilometers with nearly eight million residents.
“Russia is increasingly paying its allies for support in the war against Ukraine with its own territory,” the intelligence report said, arguing that the Kremlin’s economic dependence on its Asian partners has deepened into territorial vulnerability.
The statement outlined how the Far Eastern Federal District, chronically underfunded and sparsely populated, has become the entry point for a new phase of Chinese and North Korean expansion. Analysts cited by the report point to China’s expanding footprint across Russia’s Pacific frontier.
Forecasts estimate Chinese investments in the district could reach one trillion rubles by 2026, primarily through trade agreements rather than infrastructure projects. Ukrainian officials described this as the foundation for an “economic annexation” that locks the region into Beijing’s supply chain while yielding little local benefit.
Russian officials themselves have publicly noted the rapid growth of trade. Viktor Kalashnikov, a senator from Khabarovsk Krai, told domestic media that cargo turnover between Russia and China rose by 5.5 million tonnes in 2024 and climbed another 36 percent in the first half of 2025.
At the same time, Ukrainian intelligence said, China’s presence is no longer limited to commerce. It estimated that up to two million Chinese citizens already live between Vladivostok and the Ural Mountains, forming enclaves where Russians seldom work. The agency described this as a “creeping demographic expansion” enabled by visa‑free travel policies and special economic zones that offer foreign investors broad autonomy.
North Korea’s role in the Far East, according to the same intelligence assessment, is more labor‑driven than commercial. Over the past year, more than 15,000 North Korean workers have officially arrived in the region to fill low‑wage construction and logging jobs. Unofficial estimates cited by Ukrainian intelligence place the number closer to 50,000, with Russian companies already requesting an additional 153,000 labor contracts.
The system benefits Pyongyang far more than the workers themselves. The report said that the labor program channels roughly $500 million a year to the North Korean government while those on the ground receive little pay. By outsourcing manpower to its sanctioned ally, Moscow gains temporary relief from a domestic labor shortage but deepens a relationship that gives another nuclear‑armed neighbor a tangible foothold inside Russian borders.
Intelligence officials noted that this dual dependence — on China for investment and on North Korea for labor — creates what they called a “strategic vulnerability.”
In their assessment, Russia’s Far East is gradually being transformed into an arena where other powers solve their own problems at Moscow’s expense. China, they said, is cultivating economic dependence. North Korea is embedding itself through state‑controlled labor. Both are advancing their interests while Russia trades away long‑term control for short‑term political support.
The report also suggested that the arrangement could sow tension between Beijing and Pyongyang as their respective zones of influence expand.
“Two nuclear powers are simultaneously strengthening their positions on the territory of a third,” the intelligence service noted. “In the long term, their growing presence and competing interests could spark a conflict of priorities between partners.”
Ukrainian analysts contend that this pattern amounts to a slow‑motion erosion of Russian sovereignty in Asia. With the Kremlin’s focus locked on sustaining its war in Ukraine, the vast and underpopulated Far East is being left to foreign management, investment, and labor networks that Moscow no longer fully controls.
If current trends continue, the agency concluded, Russia could find its eastern frontier effectively governed by external forces. It would be a region where Chinese capital and North Korean labor shape daily life far more than the decrees of Moscow itself.
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Beliakina Ekaterina and Nastya Krii (via Shutterstock)
