Photo: Glavkom
The Russian occupation authorities are actively confiscating thousands of apartments from homeowners in occupied Mariupol who were forced to leave the city after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This is stated in an investigation by the British media outlet BBC, published on the basis of an analysis of documents and data.
According to the BBC, since July 2024, the occupation “administration” of Mariupol has recognised at least 5,700 homes as suitable for expropriation. Most of them belonged to Ukrainians who either fled the city or died during the 86-day siege of Mariupol in 2022. Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 8,000 people have been killed by Russian bombardment in the city, although this figure is likely to be significantly underestimated.
According to documents analysed by BBC Verify, 2,200 apartments are already being prepared for forced transfer to the occupation administration, and another 3,550 are on the list of potentially confiscated. The Russians classify these apartments as “ownerless”, claiming that they are not used or have no legal owner because they are not registered under Russian law.
In order to keep their property, Ukrainian owners are forced to face significant risks: returning to the occupied city, undergoing strict security checks, overcoming complex bureaucratic procedures and resisting pressure to obtain a Russian passport. These conditions make it virtually impossible to repossess the property.
Experts and human rights activists call such actions by the occupation authorities part of a systematic policy aimed at destroying Ukrainian identity and consolidating control over the occupied territories. The international community has not yet provided official comments on this issue, but the BBC investigation draws attention to the scale of property rights violations in Mariupol.
Date of publication: 17 April 2025
