BBC: Russian authorities massively confiscate Ukrainians’ homes in temporarily occupied Mariupol
17 April 21:26
The Russian authorities are massively confiscating housing of Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied Mariupol.
This is stated in an investigation by BBC Verify, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.
According to the analysis of documents published by the Russian city authorities since July 2024, at least 5,700 houses have been recognized by the Russian city administration as subject to seizure. Many of them belong to Ukrainian citizens who were forced to leave the city or died during the siege of the city in 2022.
Journalists note that it is not known exactly how many apartments have been confiscated in three years. However, Russia-appointed “mayor of Mariupol” Oleh Morgun recently stated that a final court decision on confiscation has been made in relation to about 600 apartments. He has also previously stated that the housing will be removed from the register “if the owner applies”.
The term “ownerless” is used to describe housing that, in the opinion of the Russian authorities, is not being used or has no legal owner.
But these apartments do have legal owners, journalists emphasize, these are Ukrainian citizens who fled the Russian occupation or the heirs of those who died during the Russian attacks.
The law on the seizure of such property, which was adopted in the so-called “DPR” in March 2024, provides for the confiscation of housing if the owners do not pay for utilities, have not registered their housing in the Unified Real Estate Register of the Russian Federation, or if the property poses a threat to the lives of other residents.
Citizens of Ukraine, as noted, need to return to Mariupol through Russia to get their housing back, undergo filtration and bureaucratic procedures, including the requirement to obtain Russian citizenship. In fact, according to Petro Andriushchenko, a former advisor to the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol and head of the Center for the Study of the Occupied Territories, if a house is on any of the lists, it is almost impossible to return it.
As a result of the fighting in Mariupol, the article says, according to the Human Rights Watch, 93% of multi-storey buildings were destroyed or damaged. After the occupation of the city, the Russian authorities claim, more than 70 new apartment buildings were built, but local residents said that there is still not enough housing.
The confiscation of Ukrainians’ property, the authors suggest, is part of a large-scale scheme to “Russify” the occupied city, including the construction of new military facilities and renaming streets to Moscow-approved names.
The journalists quote one lawyer who said that the seizure of housing is a clear violation of the laws of war set forth in the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Hague Convention, which prohibit the seizure of civilian property except in very limited cases. And Professor Nehal Bhuta, head of the Department of International Law at the University of Edinburgh, said that the seizure is illegal because it is the result of an “illegal annexation” approved by the parliament in Moscow in 2022.
