New wave of property seizures: russia mass-confiscates homes in the TOT
In the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, russian authorities are expanding the large-scale confiscation of residents’ homes under the guise of pseudo-laws on “ownerless property.”
▫️ In the occupied part of the Kherson region alone, the occupation authorities are preparing to “nationalize” 1,172 residential buildings. The formal pretext is that the owners failed to re-register their property under russian regulations.
▫️ In Dniprorudne, in the Zaporizhzhia region, residents were ordered to complete property re-registration by July 1. In practice, however, this has been made virtually impossible due to artificially created queues and the limited operation of occupation institutions. In addition, any property transactions are blocked for those who have not registered with the occupation military enlistment offices. russia has systematically employed similar mechanisms in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as in Crimea.
▫️ As emphasized by the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, this constitutes the large-scale unlawful seizure of Ukrainian property and may amount to war crimes.
The expropriation of housing in the temporarily occupied territories is part of russia’s deliberate policy of forcing out the local Ukrainian population and replacing it with settlers from the russian federation.
