Since February 24, Russia has occupied parts of the territory of Ukraine in the north, east and south. Meanwhile Ukraine’s resistance and counterattacks has forced Russia to re-calibrate its goals and withdraw from the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy oblasts as well as from Kharkiv’s surroundings. Russia, however, did not give up its attempts to seize the remaining parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and has recently conquered Mariupol after weeks of severe fights. In the Kherson and in parts of the Zaporizhzhia oblasts, Russian occupation has lasted already for three months. Yet military force alone is not enough to gain full control over a territory, let alone to integrate it in political and economic terms. What do we know about Russia’s goals, political projects and policies on the newly occupied Ukrainian territories? How do the occupational authorities combine repression, propaganda and humanitarian aid to win the loyalty of the local population? How do local elites make choices between collaboration, resistance and survival? What dilemmas do Ukrainian municipal authorities, local business, institutions of education and healthcare face under Russian occupation?