Russian authorities are unlawfully seizing civilian property belonging to Ukrainians in occupied areas, Human Rights Watch said today. International law prohibits occupying powers from confiscating or appropriating private property unless strictly required by military necessity.
Occupation authorities have introduced a process allowing them to designate private property as "ownerless" and transfer it to municipal ownership, while pressuring Ukrainian owners to obtain Russian citizenship if they wish to confirm ownership or contest seizures. For millions of displaced Ukrainians, and for those still residing in territories occupied since 2022 who refuse to comply with Russian laws, the seizure of property effectively strips them of shelter, income, or the means to sustain their lives. Along with Russian-imposed administrative and travel barriers, these measures undermine refugees' and internally displaced people's ability to return home in safety and dignity.
"Millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes in areas under Russian occupation due to the ongoing war," said Yulia Gorbunova, Associate Ukraine Director at Human Rights Watch. "Now they also face the unlawful seizure of their property as Russia blatantly disregards its obligations as an occupying power."
Between January and November 2025, Human Rights Watch interviewed 25 Ukrainian civilians who own property in or recently traveled from the occupied areas, as well as Ukrainian officials, human rights activists, and lawyers. Most interviews were conducted in person in Ukraine, and some by phone. Some people interviewed requested anonymity. Human Rights Watch also reviewed more than 300 judgments issued between March 2024 and January 2026 by courts established by Russian authorities in occupied areas of the Donetska and Luhanska regions.
Following its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russian authorities claimed to annex the Donetska, Luhanska, Khersonska, and Zaporizka regions, a move not recognized as lawful under international law. Russian authorities installed their own administrative structures and legal systems in occupied areas and enacted policies facilitating the seizure of private property, which also has no legitimacy under international law.
Through an unlawful and opaque administrative process, occupation authorities designate private property that is not reregistered under Russian law as "ownerless," after which courts transfer it to municipal ownership.
Ukrainian property owners are required to obtain Russian citizenship to participate in this process. They need to appear in person to comply with, or to challenge, the designation or transfer. The law allows the presence of a legal representative, but only if they hold a Russian passport and are acting with a power of attorney issued by a Russian passport holder. Displaced civilians face significant security, logistical, and financial barriers that make travel to occupied areas nearly impossible.
Russian federal legislation required owners with Ukraine-issued property documents to reregister their property under Russian law by January 2028. However, in late 2025, authorities moved that deadline up to July 2026, claiming residents had already had "more than enough time" to reregister their property.
Although Russian law does not explicitly exclude Ukrainian passport holders from reregistering property, Human Rights Watch found that in practice officials routinely refuse to accept Ukrainian passports. None of the Ukrainian passport holders interviewed were able to register property under Russian rules, either in person or through a legal representative. Once property is designated as "ownerless," only Russian passport holders can challenge the designation.
Once authorities identify a property as showing "signs of being ownerless"-with lack of reregistration a key factor-they post notices at apartment building entrances or on local administration websites that may be inaccessible from Ukrainian-controlled territory due to internet restrictions imposed by Ukrainian authorities. The owner then has 30 days to appear before occupation authorities to confirm ownership.
The designation of "ownerless" often proceeds even when authorities are aware of the owner's identity.
"It's like they announce them ownerless while still admitting they have owners," said a displaced resident of Mariupol. "The key requirement [of the Russian authorities] is that the person be present [to register the apartment in Russia's registry] and have a Russian passport. For me, this is completely unacceptable."
Human Rights Watch documented 16 such cases based on first-hand accounts; in 2, the authorities seized property without any notice to the owners.
Under current restrictions, Ukrainian passport holders seeking to enter occupied territories must travel through Russia, where they face intrusive screening by the Federal Security Service (FSB) border guards, including interrogations and phone inspections. According to Ukraine's civil society group East SOS, only one out of every four people undergoing this "filtration" process is allowed to proceed. These restrictions make compliance impossible for many displaced Ukrainians.
"On the one hand, authorities say owners must appear within 30 days to prove ownership," said a 75-year-old displaced resident from Sievierodonetsk. "But no one gets through the filtration process."
In August 2025, Russian authorities reported that 4.6 million properties had been registered in the four occupied regions since September 2024, identifying 550,000 properties with no documentation, placing them at risk of being deemed "ownerless."
According to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, occupation authorities had issued notices identifying more than 38,000 properties as "potentially 'abandoned'" by November 2025. The UN also reported that occupation authorities in the Donetska and Luhanska regions had already formally designated 5,557 properties "abandoned." Once occupation authorities designate private property "ownerless," they petition courts to formally transfer it to municipal ownership.
Human Rights Watch identified approximately 8,000 court cases involving property seizures filed between March 2024 and January 2026 in 25 courts in occupied areas. The total is most likely higher, as not all courts publish decisions or maintain accessible websites. Court records show consistent disregard of evidence of ownership and efforts by owners to assert their rights.
Occupation authorities in Mariupol have begun transferring confiscated apartments to new residents. Russian authorities have promoted the relocation of Russian citizens to Mariupol through media campaigns and low-interest mortgages.
As an occupying power, Russia is prohibited by international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, from transferring its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. Such transfers constitute a war crime, prosecutable under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Russia is also bound to respect private property and is prohibited from seizing it except where strictly required by military necessity. It must also respect property rights, ensure due process, and avoid discrimination under international human rights law.
Russian authorities should end unlawful property seizures in occupied areas of Ukraine. They should also end policies that alter the demographics of occupied areas, including coercive pressure to obtain Russian citizenship and nationality-based discrimination, and lift restrictions preventing Ukrainians from traveling to occupied territories.
International accountability efforts should place greater emphasis on Russia's occupation-related abuses. The European Union and the Council of Europe should ensure that newly established mechanisms, such as the Register of Damage for Ukraine and the Claims Commission, address these violations and provide reparations to victims.
"Russia's laws and policies in occupied areas seek to mask the unlawful seizure of civilian property behind a veneer of legality, both a violation of international law and an assault on the livelihoods of millions of Ukrainians," Gorbunova said. "Russian authorities should immediately cease these illegal practices.
Russia's Legal Framework for Designating a Property Ownerless
Article 225 of Russia's Civil Code, provides that property may be deemed "ownerless" if it has no owner, the owner is unknown, or the owner has renounced ownership.
On October 4, 2022, Russian authorities adopted legislation purporting to annex Russia-occupied Ukrainian territories in Donetska, Luhanska, Khersonska, and Zaporizka regions. This legislation, which aimed to forcibly integrate the territories into Russia's economic, financial, legal, and administrative systems, authorized occupying authorities to designate private property as "ownerless."
Specific procedures and criteria for such designations are regulated by the local authorities in four occupied regions.
Legislative amendments adopted on December 15, 2025, incorporated the property seizure processes, previously regulated at the regional level, into federal law. The amendments also formalized the requirement for property owners in occupied areas holding Ukraine-issued documents to reregister their property in Russia's Unified State Register of Real Estate by July 1, 2026.
The amendments stipulate that residential property-private houses, apartments or rooms-designated as ownerless shall be recognized as the property of the respective regions or their municipalities. Such property may then be allocated to Russian passport holders who lost housing because of the conflict, who are registered as needing housing, whose own property has been seized as "ownerless," or who work for local authorities or their subordinate institutions, including in education and health.
Local-Level Implementation of the Process
Human Rights Watch documented 16 cases, based on first-hand interviews, in which occupation authorities designated properties whose owners are Ukrainian passport holders "ownerless." In two of these cases, authorities seized the properties without providing owners with any meaningful opportunity to challenge the decision.
Under regional legislation enacted by occupation authorities in the occupied areas of the four regions, any individual or legal entity can notify local authorities that they believe a property is ownerless. Authorities then verify the property's status based on criteria, including:
- Non-payment of utilities for more than a year;
- Absence of ownership registration in Russia's Unified State Register of Real Estate; or
- Non-use of property deemed to pose a safety risk to the building or its residents.
Within 10 days of receiving notification, local authorities are required to publish information about the property on their official websites and post notices in accessible locations, including at the entrances to residential buildings, calling on the owner to appear in person within 30 days to confirm ownership.
Occupation authorities establish special commissions to conduct on-site inspections and produce reports on the property's condition. If officials lack access to the premises and claim safety concerns, they may enter forcibly in the presence of police officers. They document the inspections with written reports, photographs, and videos. Human Rights Watch documented five cases in which authorities designated properties "ownerless" though they had identifiable owners or tenants.
If no owner appears within the prescribed period, and registry and utility providers confirm that the property is not registered or that utility contracts have not been renewed, a special body composed of representatives of local authorities may designate the property "ownerless" and assume its management.
Three months later, local authorities can petition a court to formally transfer ownership. Owners seeking to contest the "ownerless" status during that period must appear in person and present a Russian passport.
The Russian imposed laws provide no effective mechanism for displaced Ukrainians to confirm their ownership other than to be physically present. The law allows the presence of a legal representative, but only if they hold a Russian passport and are acting with a power of attorney issued by a Russian passport holder. Authorities refuse to accept powers of attorney issued by Ukrainian passport holders.
A man and his then-wife owned a hotel about 900 meters from the Sea of Azov in a village in the Khersonska region. After they left in early 2022, a local manager remained responsible for the property. In March 2025, residents from the city of Nova Kakhovka moved into the property without the owners' consent, reportedly with the approval of the head of the village's occupation administration. By September 2025, individuals allegedly linked to local occupation authorities forced the manager to vacate the premises without presenting any legal documentation.
The man later learned that, in May 2025, the Khersonska regional occupation administration had designated the property "ownerless" following a notice published on its website. No notice was posted at the entrance. The owners, both Ukrainian citizens, are unable to travel to the occupied territory to challenge the decision. The man said he had heard that the property ownership was transferred because local occupation authorities "want to move someone else in there." The couple hired a lawyer to contest the seizure.
A woman originally from Mariupol, who left the city in 2022 due to hostilities and now lives in Ukraine government-controlled territory said she had repeatedly seen her property listed as ownerless since early 2025, including in Telegram channels used by Mariupol residents. In December 2025, occupation authorities officially designated her apartment, along with 341 other properties in the city, as "ownerless."
Her building, including her apartment, had been heavily damaged during attacks on Mariupol in the early months of Russia's full-scale invasion. She said she maintained regular contact with neighbors who remained in Mariupol and with the repair brigade that carried out initial renovation work on the building.
She said that one notice described it as "ownerless property whose owners have left Mariupol." "It's like they announce them ownerless while still admitting they have owners," she said.
A 63-year-old pensioner from Avdiivka in occupied Donetska region, said that an apartment belonging to her friend's son was designated as "ownerless" and reassigned to other residents while both the owner and his mother were living in areas controlled by the Ukrainian government. Later, they told her that they saw photographs on an Avdiivka Telegram channel showing local authorities issuing occupancy documents to new residents. "[The occupation authorities] saw that almost the entire building was empty and decided to populate it with new residents to show that everything was fine," she said.
Court Practice in Property Seizure Cases
Russian authorities began establishing courts in the occupied territories in April 2023. At the time of writing, websites for 25 courts are operational, including 23 district courts and 2 regional courts in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic.
Human Rights Watch identified 8,116 publicly available court cases involving property seizures under special proceedings before these courts on the websites, including 2,113 decisions; judgments in the remaining cases had not been published at time of writing. Researchers identified these cases on court websites. Other courts in the occupied territories either did not have functioning websites or have not published relevant records.
Researchers reviewed at least 300 decisions, which indicated that similar procedures for verifying property ownership are being applied across several municipalities in these regions.
The decisions suggest that the process from identifying a property as potentially ownerless to transferring ownership can take about a year. In one example from the city of Yenakiieve in Donetsk region:
- May 31, 2024: authorities posted an online notice identifying a property as potentially ownerless.
- December 2024 and January 2025: authorities collected information from registries and utility providers.
- February 7, 2025: the property was formally registered as ownerless.
- August 5, 2025: a court transferred the property to municipal ownership.
- September 8, 2025: the decision entered into force.
In typical cases, judges rely on confirmation that the property is not registered, information from utilities, and inspection reports.
In most cases, courts specifically cited the absence of registration as sufficient legal grounds to confirm the "ownerless" designation and transfer ownership.
Human Rights Watch reviewed only one case in which a judge assessed whether the property posed a safety risk, finding that the absence of heating, due to renovation work left unfinished since 2013, created a risk for neighbors.
In most cases, courts made the "ownerless" determination even though the property owners were clearly identified. In one case, the evidence included technical documentation, ownership histories, and ownership certificates naming the owners.
In some cases, utility providers reported that bills had been paid; in others, relatives or tenants were living in the property or managing it on the owner's behalf. However, if the property was not registered in Russia's registry, judges still ruled that the "ownerless" criteria were met.
In one case from October 2025, a Russia-installed Primorsk District Court in Mariupol ruled to transfer an apartment to occupation authorities despite evidence presented in court that the owner-a Ukrainian citizen-was too ill to travel and was actively seeking the required permission to register her property. The judge disregarded evidence that the owner was identifiable, had no utility debts, and had a relative living in the apartment. Instead, the court ruled that the absence of Russian registration and updated utility contracts constituted sufficient grounds to seize the property.
In another case before the Pershotravnevyi District Court in the occupied Donetska region in October 2025, a Ukrainian homeowner who had left her house in a village in Mangush allowed others to live there beginning in May 2022. Utility contracts remained in the owner's name, with no outstanding utility debts. Authorities were able to identify the owner through archival records. Despite this, the judge transferred ownership to municipal authorities, citing the owner's failure to appear in person and the absence of registration.
In some analyzed cases, inspection reports relied only on neighbors' statements or superficial observations, such as a closed apartment door. In some cases, courts also relied on photographs submitted by local administrations showing "unkempt grass" or "overgrown vegetation." In one case, the court cited an inspection report stating that the property "shows signs of being abandoned," referring to photographs of the yard with "overgrown grass and bushes." In another, the court relied on a commission's visual inspection, which concluded that no one had been living in the apartment for a long time, noting closed doors and plastic windows.
In only a few cases did courts terminate proceedings after identifying the property owner or recognizing a legitimate ownership claim to the property, for example, when heirs were in the process of establishing inheritance rights.
Ukrainian authorities do not recognize decisions or documents issued by occupation authorities and courts, viewing them as invalid and without legal effect. Tetiana Gorodenska, head of the Division for the Rights of Citizens in Temporarily Occupied Territories at the Ukrainian Ombudsperson's Office, said that "Ukraine does not recognize nationalization or any change in property ownership in occupied territories."
Discriminatory Barriers to Property Reregistration for Ukrainian Passport Holders
To register property, owners or their representatives are required to submit original Ukrainian ownership documents in person at a Multifunction Service Center, all-in-one government services centers located either in occupied territories or in Russia.
Although the law does not explicitly require applicants to hold a Russian passport, Human Rights Watch found that officials treat Russian citizenship as a de facto prerequisite. Every person interviewed said that the authorities refused to allow Ukrainian passport holders to register property or appoint legal representatives to act on their behalf. In effect, this means forcing them to choose between obtaining Russian citizenship and risking the loss of their property.
In one documented case, a 74-year-old woman who fled Mariupol in 2022, traveled from Germany to Russia in 2024 specifically to register her apartment. Officials at the service center refused to accept her Ukrainian passport, stating that property registration was available only to Russian citizens. She said she ultimately obtained a Russian passport solely to protect her home.
"Unfriendly Foreign States" Designations
In 2024, Russian authorities further restricted the ability of Ukrainian citizens to confirm their property rights with new measures targeting citizens of so-called unfriendly foreign states, including Ukraine. Under these restrictions, Ukrainian passport holders must obtain special administrative permission from local occupation authorities before they can even apply to register property.
Human Rights Watch reviewed more than a dozen court rulings in which judges in occupied territories cited owners' Ukrainian citizenship as that of an "unfriendly state" and said that leaving occupied territory was evidence that they had "withdrawn from the ownership and use of their property," even when ownership and identity had been confirmed.
In several documented cases, courts disregarded clear statements by property owners expressing their intention to comply with Russian regulations.
In one case before the Telmanovskiy District Court in the occupied Donetska region in October 2025, a Ukrainian homeowner submitted an email statement that she was unable to travel but clearly expressing her intention to register the property before the then-applicable 2028 deadline. The judge dismissed her claim, stating that the designation of her property as "ownerless" could be halted only if the owner appeared in person and noting that she was a citizen of an "unfriendly" state residing outside Russia. The judge then ruled to transfer ownership of the house to municipal authorities.
Amendments to the "unfriendly" foreign states' legislation, introduced on December 29, 2025, prohibit recognizing powers of attorney issued by Ukrainian passport holders for these real estate transactions without special permission from local authorities. In these cases, the power of attorney should be issued exclusively by a notary practicing within the Russia-occupied territories.
Russian officials appeared to refuse to recognize the authority of legal representatives acting on behalf of Ukrainian passport holders even before these amendments entered into force. In May 2025, a 58-year-old businesswoman from occupied Berdiansk, described the case of an acquaintance who attempted to sell her home through a legal representative. The owner, a Ukrainian citizen, obtained a power of attorney at a Russian consulate in Moldova authorizing a relative with a Russian passport to manage the sale of her house in Berdiansk. When the relative presented the consular documents, officials in Moscow refused to recognize them, stating that powers of attorney issued by Ukrainian passport holders were invalid. The woman said officials made clear that both the owner's personal presence and Russian citizenship were required for any property transaction.
Restrictions for Ukrainians Traveling to Occupied Territories
Since October 2023, restrictions imposed by Russian authorities require Ukrainian passport holders seeking to enter occupied territories to first travel to Russia, typically through Sheremetyevo Airport, before continuing by bus to occupied areas. Many Ukrainians reach Moscow via Minsk Airport in Belarus.
At the Russian border, Ukrainians are subjected to an invasive security screening process known as "filtration" and are expected to express loyalty to the Russian state. According to the Ukrainian civil society group East SOS, border guards from Russia's FSB interrogate travelers about their views on Russia's full-scale invasion and their potential ties to Ukrainian government or security institutions and conduct intrusive inspections of their mobile phones and social media accounts.
Russian authorities reported that between October 2023 and April 2025, 30,000 Ukrainians were denied entry and issued entry bans ranging from 20 to 50 years. These bans are reportedly based on pro-Ukrainian social media activity, including liking posts featuring the Ukrainian military or expressing criticism of Russia's war or policy. Russian courts have reportedly rejected all appeals lodged against these entry bans.
At the same time, men ages 23 to 60 are barred from leaving Ukraine under the martial law regime, further limiting the ability of property owners to travel to occupied territories.
People interviewed described 37 instances in which Ukrainians were denied entry while attempting to travel to manage their property, and only 3 cases in which individuals were allowed to proceed. Several other people said they feared they could not endure the lengthy and difficult journey, which can take more than a week and involve long-distance bus travel, or believed they would ultimately be denied entry. At least five people, including older people, people with disabilities, and those who had publicly opposed Russia's invasion, said they considered the trip impossible.
A 51-year-old journalist from Mariupol who owns an apartment in the city said she decided against attempting the journey because she believed her public pro-Ukrainian views would lead to a denial of entry. She said that, to her knowledge, only two or three people from a bus with about 100 passengers are typically allowed to proceed through the "filtration" process.
She described a case in 2024 in which an acquaintance spent a week traveling to reach Sheremetyevo Airport but was then denied entry after officials claimed that a contact in her phone belonged to a Ukrainian military commander. The contact was, in fact, a colleague from a groceries warehouse.
A 66-year-old pensioner said she would like to return to Mariupol to inspect her apartment but believed she would be denied entry because her son had served in the Ukrainian armed forces and had been a prisoner of war before being released in a prisoner exchange in December 2024.
Logistical and financial barriers also prevent owners from contesting the seizure of their property. A woman, who now lives in Kyiv and owns an apartment in central Mariupol that she found listed as "ownerless" on a Mariupol administration website, said she could not travel due to health problems and lack of financial means.
Multiple people interviewed said the trip would be prohibitively expensive, costing approximately 500 euros each way, with no guarantee of entry. The trip typically includes several days of waiting for the "filtration" procedures at the airport.
The 63-year-old pensioner from Avdiivka said she knew at least six people, all around age 60, who were denied entry in Russia while attempting to travel to occupied territories to check on their property. She said they were not questioned but simply informed that they were barred from entry.
A 57-year-old woman from Sievierodonetsk in occupied areas of Luhanska region, similarly, said she knew of eight families who attempted to travel through Sheremetyevo Airport in 2024 to confirm ownership of their property but were denied entry, including one family with a child with a disability.
International Legal Framework
Under international law, Russia is an occupying power in areas of Ukraine over which it exercises effective control, including Crimea and parts of the Donetska, Luhanska, Zaporizska, and Khersonska regions and is bound by the law of occupation found primarily in the Hague Regulations of 1907, the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 (GC IV), the 1977 Additional Protocol I, and customary international law.
Under that law an occupying power is prohibited from confiscating private property unless destruction or seizure is "absolutely necessary" for military operations (Hague, art. 46; GC IV, art. 53) and from transferring its own civilian population into the territory it occupies (GC IV, art. 49). The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (art. 8(2)(b)(viii)) defines "the transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies" as a war crime.
As an occupying power, Russia is required to respect existing laws and institutions of the occupied territory to the fullest extent possible and to protect the civilian population in those areas. Russia is also responsible for violations of international human rights law in territories under its effective control, including violations that arise from their arbitrary denial of Ukrainians' right to use, access or enjoy their homes and property, and from discriminatory treatment of Ukrainian civilians.
