How Russia prey from Ukrainian homes in Marihopolje – BBC News in Serbian
The Russian authorities systematically seize thousands of hosts of Ukrainian inhabitants of Marihopolje, shows the investigation of the BBC team for determining facts.
Are three years of how this Ukrainian coastal town is under occupation.
At least 5,700 homes are planned for confiscation, and many belong to people who escaped the city, shows the BBC analysis of documents published by the city authorities set by Russia after July 2024.
To save their own homes, Ukrainians would have to be exposed to a dangerous return to Maripoles through Russia, exhausting security checks, a complex bureaucratic process and strong pressures to accept Russian passport.
Most affected property used to belong to Ukrainians who or escaped or killed during Russian 86-day siege strategically important city 2022.
More than 8,000 people were killed in the bombing of this city, but that figure is « probably significantly underestimated, » organization pointed out Hjuman Rajts Voč.
Confiscations act as part of a broader plan to « Russify » the occupied coastal city, which includes the construction of new military facilities and renaming streets in the names approved by Moscow.
Hjuman Rajts study showed that in Russian siege destroyed or damaged 93 percent of Marypolish skyscrapers – 443 buildings
Since then, Russia has claimed that it has built more than 70 new residential buildings, but the locals say that the great disapse of apartments continue.
For some time, there are reports that Russia confiscates property in the occupied Ukraine.
This process accelerated a new law, but also made it difficult for Ukrainian owners to achieve their rights.
The documents that the BBC analyzed show that 2,200 homes of city officials seize as well as that 3,500 are in the list of potential confiscation.
Marypoland officials did not answer inquiries.
Halina is among 350,000 Ukrainians, which is estimated that they escaped from Marihopolje to avoid Russian occupation.
We agreed not to publish her last name for concerns about the security of her family left in the city.
She told her residential building in the coastal town, which had 425,000 inhabitants before the war, severely damaged in Russian Tanking Vash during the siege.
It was said that « windows and neck » was fixed and people live without her permission.
She fears her apartment.
« It’s legalized theft of the property, » she says.
Russian officials use the term « no owner » to describe homes that no one uses or those without a legal owner – practically assets not registered in Russia.
But these apartments have legal owners – Ukrainian residents who fled Russian occupation or the heirs of those who died in Russian attacks.
Official documents published on the Pro-Russian administration website show this complex process that leads to the property being confiscated after applying local inspectors or residents.
Original list
Within 10 days of the original application, the authorities set by Russia are posting on their website that assets show « signs that there is no owner. »
Registration begins
The owner then must appear in Marihopolje with ownership documents and Russian passports.
Authorities say that other forms of identification not specifically accepted.
Property in the Register
If the owner does not appear in person within 30 days of the release of the list, the authorities begin to register property as if « no owners ».
When the property is introduced into the register with the label that « no owners », the authorities are waiting for three months, so they are looking for a court order to transfer the home to the city’s ownership.
We could not find a record of how the last court stage has passed.
At the recent press conference, Oleg Morgun, Mayor of Maripolje, who asked Russia, said that a final court decision was made to confiscate some 600 apartments.
In practice, if your apartment reaches any of these lists, the property is practically « You cannot comment on, says Petro Andrušenko, a former Ukrainian mayor’s adviser.
In early April, Morgun insisted that homes will be deleted from the register « If the owner is appealing. »
Once the homes were seized, the law was adopted at the end of 2024. It allows authorities to transfer ownership to individuals.
Only the inhabitants of the self-proclaimed donation of the People’s Republic who lost property and have a Russian passport to obtain apartments according to this program.
The authorities seem to make it difficult for Ukrainians to achieve their own rights.
All homes in places such as Maripols must be registered in Russia, but the decree who has been signed by President Vladimir Putin in March, including Ukraine, to register property in occupied territories until 2028. Without a special permit.
It practically puts Ukrainians before the impossible choice: their safety and identity or home.
Pavlo says he had to stay in Maripolje throughout the siege after the Russian soldiers shot him.
He managed to prevent his own home seizing his own home, providing a Russian passport and says that « 95 percent of all conversations lead in this city about property ».
The BBC agreed not to publish the real name to protect him.
In chugas on a telegram, the BBC team for determining facts, some of which have thousands of users, many locals were confused by the process.
Occasionally they did not understand how the property « has no owners » were declared in the end.
« The rules are not clear and have not been published anywhere.
« You can be prosecuted for anything Ukrainian in your phone or in the file they have about you, » says Halina.
Diana Berg also escaped from the city to avoid Russian occupation, leaving behind a family home.
She is now somewhere else in Ukraine.
To prevent the property from moving into the hands of the city, Diana cousin would have to return to Marupol.
The only way to do it is to land at the Šeremetjevo Moscow Airport, where to face exhausting security checks of the Federal Security Service (FSB) known as « filtration ».
Diana says « there is no way » that her family travels to Marupol.
« The process of ‘filtration’ can take a week.
« Don’t close you, but they keep you in that hub while checking you, » recounts.
Housing plans act as if they are part of the wider campaign « Russifications » of the South Ukrainian city.
Satellite images and media reports show that a new maritime Academy and the Grand Ratnj Monument are being built.
A new coat of arms of the city with which Ukrainian language has been adopted, and Russian symbols are added.
Many of these changes introduced with very little resistance, but the housing program caused rare criticism among the remaining inhabitants of Maripola dissatisfied with the status of apartments they offer.
The protest came after Russian president Putin personally supported the program in December 2024.
One legal expert said that the plan is obvious violation of the customs of war defined by the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Hague Convention.
They are prohibited to plenize civilian property in very limited cases.
The plans are illegal because they arise from « illegal annexes » approved by Parliament in Moscow 2022. He claims Nehal Buta, Chairman of International Law at Edinburgh University.
For Ukraine, it says Andrušenko, tedious and confusing the process.
« Like someone again hurt you again.
« You can’t understand how it is possible for your apartment, your property, ‘no owner’.
« It’s like hitting you with a hammer in the head, » he says.
The BBC has downloaded documents that contain a list of addresses from the official website of PRO-Russian authorities publicly available in Mariupolje.
The addresses are standardized, and the values are added for the latitude and the length of each location, allowing the map drawing.
Additional reporting: Alex Marej, Jaroslava Kirjukhna and Harriet Agerholm
Design: Mesut Ersoz, Ervan Rivolt and Luiz Hunter
Developed: Dude Boskaini-Gilroj and Sean Hardern
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