Photo: Mariupol / Reuters
Abandoned houses, apartments, and even privately owned rooms in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine could soon be transferred to the ownership of regional “authorities.” On Oct. 20, Russia's government commission on legislative activity approved an initiative to allow for the effective seizure of “ownerless” residential property in the so-called “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk and in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, pro-government outlet Vedomosti reports.
According to the draft initiative, housing can be declared ownerless if there are no valid title documents available, or if the owner cannot be identified. Such apartments and houses could then be recognized as property of the “republics” and regions, or of individual municipal entities.
The initiative, which has yet to be submitted to the State Duma for consideration, should take the form of amendments to the laws on the incorporation of “new” territories into the Russian Federation.
The initiative envisages using seized property as official housing for military personnel, civil servants, police officers, teachers, and doctors. Russian citizens whose own homes in the affected areas have been destroyed in connection with Russia’s ongoing invasion may also be compensated with the help of the “ownerless” property. Provisions for returning confiscated property to its rightful owners, should they emerge, are also included in the plan.
In addition, the bill establishes state ownership of assets that cannot belong to individuals or legal entities, such as critical infrastructure facilities, premises of key enterprises, and so on. The amendments extend the transitional period during which Russia expects to integrate the occupied regions of Ukraine into its economic and legal systems until March 1, 2028.
Earlier, as Vedomosti notes, the procedure for declaring property ownerless was regulated by regional laws or decrees issued in the seized territories. However, Igor Kastyukevich, the Russian Federation Council “representative” of the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson Region, believes that the status of ownerless housing should be regulated by a federal law.
In August, media outlets citing Rosreestr head Oleg Skufinsky reported that Russia's property register had identified upwards of 550,000 ownerless properties in the “LPR,” “DPR,” Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions. Earlier this summer, Russia passed a law allowing for the recognition of property rights based on documents issued by Ukrainian government agencies.