Studying abroad in occupied territory Russian-accredited universities in Ukraine’s Donbas are admitting foreign students. Will their diplomas be recognized anywhere else?
Medical universities in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine’s Donbas region have begun admitting foreign students. Despite their proximity to the front line and the fact that they’re on internationally recognized Ukrainian territory, these Russian-run schools are enrolling growing numbers of foreign students — from India and Pakistan, as well as Arab and African countries. According to the outlet Vot Tak, some colleges plan to expand their quotas for international students further, though experts warn that graduates may face difficulties finding employment outside of Russia and occupied Ukraine. Meduza shares key findings from Vot Tak’s investigation.
Please note: Vot Tak’s correspondent obtained comments from students and university employees by posing as a prospective foreign applicant interested in these institutions.
In October 2025, the St. Luke Luhansk State Medical University (LSMU), the only medical university in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic in occupied Ukraine, admitted a group of Indian students to its general medicine program. According to the university, this was its first foreign enrollment in more than a decade, since the start of the war in Donbas.
The school called the arrival of the Indian group a “landmark day in its development.” After fighting began in 2014, universities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions were evacuated to Ukrainian-controlled areas, prompting both local and foreign students to leave. Some institutions, however, continued operating under the separatist administrations of the self-proclaimed “DNR” and “LNR,” establishing so-called “mirror” universities — schools with the same names but under local de facto authorities. LSMU was among them.
As these institutions developed ties with Russian universities, their enrollment numbers dropped sharply. In 2016, LSMU graduated just one foreign student who wasn’t from Russia, according to then-dean of the foreign students’ department, Irina Krokhmal.
A 2019 investigation by Donbas.Realii reported that, before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, some foreign students were enrolled at Russian universities and then quietly transferred to schools in occupied Donbas. That same year, then-rector Alexander Torba acknowledged that some Luhansk graduates received diplomas from Rostov State Medical University, which had a cooperation agreement with LSMU, while others chose diplomas issued by the “LNR.”
In 2022, after Moscow announced the annexation of Donbas as well as Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, around 30 universities in those areas were integrated into Russia’s higher education system. These institutions received Russian accreditation, began implementing Russian standards, and started issuing Russian diplomas.
Expanding international enrollment
LSMU’s foreign student program is overseen by chemistry professor Yevgeny Blagodarenko, who has taught there since the late 1990s, when the university operated under Ukrainian jurisdiction. Leaked data indicates that Blagodarenko, a Luhansk native, once held Ukrainian citizenship but obtained a Russian passport after 2014.
His daughter Maria, herself an LSMU student, told Vot Tak that this year the university admitted a “pilot” group of at least 14 Indians. On LSMU’s website, Vot Tak found official enrollment orders listing 15 foreign students in the general medicine program and one in the pediatrics program for the 2025–2026 academic year.
Another student estimated that “around 20–25” Indians are currently studying there. The university reportedly plans to expand its foreign intake, enrolling around 100 Indian students in 2026, according to Maria Blagodarenko.
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Foreign students at LSMU can study in either Russian or English. English-language instruction resumed only in the 2025–2026 academic year, with the Indian group attending those classes. Tuition for English-language programs ranges from 315,000 ($3,870) to 445,000 rubles ($5,470) per year — slightly higher than for Russian-language courses (300,000–435,000 rubles, or $3,670–$5,350).
The first Indian cohort appears to have enrolled through Sputnik Group, an education consultancy based in Krasnodar that helps students from India and Sri Lanka apply to Russian universities. In January 2025, its representatives paid a “friendly visit” to LSMU, and on October 12, the agency posted an Instagram video showing Indian students flying to Russia with the caption: “Our students have departed from Chennai to Russia to fulfill their MBBS dream. We’re proud to be part of their journey.”
Meanwhile, Donetsk State Medical University recently began admitting students from Pakistan. The university announced that the newcomers have started a preparatory Russian-language course and will begin full programs in 2026. The university planned to enroll 30 Pakistani students in 2025, with tuition ranging from 335,000 to 394,000 rubles ($4,000–$4,800) a year.
These and other universities in occupied Donbas have also enrolled students from Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, and Belarus.
Like local students, foreign enrollees are required to take part in pro-war propaganda events. In February 2025, several LSMU students from Arab countries joined a “Dialogues with Heroes” program, where they met Russian soldiers and were told about “the real events that took place in Donbas.”
Diplomas and recognition abroad
LSMU’s foreign-student coordinator, Yevgeny Blagodarenko, told Vot Tak that recognition of its diplomas abroad “depends on how individual countries treat the universities of the new territories.”
Sputnik Group, however, told the outlet that “all diplomas issued by the Russian Federation are valid and recognized by the World Health Organization,” claiming that LSMU degrees would be accepted internationally. “Politically, there may be disagreements about the current situation [the invasion of Ukraine], but diplomas from the Russian Federation are recognized everywhere,” the agency said.
A representative of the Russian-run Luhansk State Agrarian University gave a more cautious assessment, saying the school’s diplomas meet Russian Federation standards, but “you’d have to check recognition in each specific country.”
Sociologist Dmitry Dubrovsky, formerly of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics and now at Charles University in Prague, told Vot Tak that, formally, other countries have no legal grounds to reject Russian diplomas issued by universities on occupied Ukrainian territory.
“If a university has Russian accreditation, it’s not tied to geography. Accreditation is extraterritorial — any university can get it. For example, the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University in Bishkek issues Russian diplomas,” he explained.
Dubrovsky added that international law generally does not distinguish between diplomas issued in different regions of the same country:
There’s no precedent for rejecting diplomas from a specific territory. Even in unrecognized Northern Cyprus, universities issue degrees validated by Turkey, and those circulate freely worldwide, despite Cyprus’s objections.
At the same time, he emphasized the “moral and ethical” dimension of the issue. After Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, he noted, European institutions refused to recognize Russian diplomas issued there.
In Dubrovsky’s view, graduates of Donbas universities that came under Russian control after 2022 are unlikely to have their degrees recognized in the E.U. or the U.S. But countries like India, Pakistan, and many African and Latin American states are less likely to scrutinize where exactly in Russia a diploma was issued.
“Given that Russia is building an alternative global market with India, Pakistan, Brazil, Iran, and South Africa, I doubt anyone in those places will care. They’ll treat the diploma simply as a Russian one,” Dubrovsky said.
Still, he warned that problems could arise later if Ukraine’s Education Ministry formally asks other countries not to recognize diplomas from occupied territories.
“Graduates of those universities would face serious issues. But for now, Ukraine has neither the time nor the resources to challenge them,” Dubrovsky said.
