Russia is systematically seizing the homes of Ukrainians who have left the occupied territories. According to the French publication Le Figaro, at least 25,000 properties have already been confiscated or are being prepared for seizure by the occupying authorities.
Journalists came to this conclusion after analysing documents, eyewitness accounts and open sources. While in the first months of the occupation, Russian looting mainly targeted businesses and state property, now it is mainly the private homes of Ukrainians who have fled the war.
According to Russian rules, houses that are not listed in their land registry are defined as ‘ownerless property.’ Owners have only 30 days to personally confirm their ownership with a Russian passport, otherwise, after three months, the ‘court’ will declare the property state-owned.
Le Figaro has identified about 25,000 such properties in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. This is a minimum estimate — in Crimea, according to the UN, more than 5,500 Ukrainian properties have been confiscated in just ten years.
Experts point out that Russia is continuing the policy it developed in Crimea. Mykyta Petrovets, a lawyer at the Regional Centre for Human Rights, notes that the peninsula has become a ‘testing ground’ where Moscow has tried out expropriation schemes before applying them in newly occupied regions.
According to Le Figaro, at least 13,000 houses have been confiscated in Mariupol alone. The most ‘profitable’ areas for Russians were Energodar, the centre of Donetsk, Bryanka in Luhansk Oblast, and the resort town of Kyrylivka. The seized apartments are being occupied by military personnel, special services agents, occupation officials, and civil servants from Russia, who are attracted by higher salaries.
Human rights activist Vira Yastrebova, whose apartment in Debaltseve was seized by Russian military personnel, calls the process a ‘large-scale and planned campaign under the guise of bureaucracy.’ She adds that such a policy not only violates the rights of Ukrainians, but also complicates the prospect of future de-occupation, as Russia is trying to create a new legal and social landscape on foreign soil.
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