In Mariupol, the occupying forces have declared nearly 25,000 apartments ownerless
The Russian occupation authorities in Mariupol have added approximately 25,000 apartments and private homes to the lists of so-called “ownerless” housing, which they plan to transfer to municipal ownership. Property owners have been given until July 1, 2026, to confirm their rights to the housing.
According to a journalistic investigation based on an analysis of documents from the occupation administration and data from the Mariupol City Council, more than 45,000 addresses were added to the “ownerless” lists between the summer of 2023 and April 2026.
After verification and removal of duplicates, more than 24,000 unique properties remained.
Before the full-scale invasion of Mariupol, there were 135,176 apartments in 2,249 apartment buildings, as well as over 37,000 private homes. Thus, the occupiers have already designated approximately 15% of the city’s housing stock as “ownerless.” The actual figure may be even higher, as a significant portion of the housing was destroyed during the fighting, and hundreds of buildings were demolished.
Most of these properties are concentrated in Mariupol’s Central District. The record holder is the building at 31 Kazantseva Street, where, following its restoration, the occupying authorities declared 199 out of 216 apartments “ownerless.” Dozens of apartments in buildings on Kotlyarevsky Street and Mir Avenue were also added to the lists.
The procedure for seizing housing consists of several stages. First, the property is added to the list of properties showing “signs of being ownerless,” then it is placed on a special registry, after which it is declared “ownerless” and transferred to municipal ownership. As of the end of May 2026, more than 5,300 properties were on record, and 4,336 properties had already been added to the “ownerless property” registry.
To retain their rights to their own homes, Ukrainians are being forced to obtain Russian passports and register their real estate under Russian law. The procedure is complex, expensive, and effectively inaccessible to most owners who are in territory controlled by Ukraine or abroad.
The situation has been further complicated by a decision of the occupying authorities, which, as of December 2025, have deprived Ukrainian citizens of the ability to issue powers of attorney through Russian diplomatic missions.
Human rights activists emphasize that traveling to the occupied territory carries serious risks, including interrogations, detentions, and persecution by Russian security services.
Onysia Sinyuk, head of the analytical department at the ZMINA Human Rights Center, recommends that property owners document all violations of property rights remotely, report them to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, and file claims with the international Register of Damages.
She emphasizes that under Ukrainian law, ownership of housing remains with the lawful owners, even if the occupying administration has illegally added the property to the lists of “ownerless property.”
Earlier, in the temporarily occupied city of Mariupol, the Russian administration began a mass redistribution of apartments belonging to local residents who had left the city due to the war or were unable to confirm their ownership rights because their documents had been destroyed.
In Mariupol, the occupiers have failed to pay the promised compensation for destroyed housing
In Mariupol, construction workers rebuilding the city are being systematically denied their wages.
