The Russian government has enacted a new decree that creates a legal mechanism to seize private property from Ukrainian citizens in occupied territories, officially re-designating homes as "ownerless" if the original owners have fled. This move formalizes the large-scale appropriation of assets, particularly from those who evacuated due to the full-scale war.

This bureaucratic maneuver provides a legal facade for the systematic seizure of thousands of properties, which are then used to incentivize Russian citizens and military personnel to relocate to occupied lands. The act represents a potential war crime, adding to a growing list of perpetrations to be addressed by international bodies like the International Criminal Court (ICC).

What the new decree mandates

The new legal framework, reported by RBC-Ukraine, establishes a process for occupation authorities to identify and register "ownerless" real estate. This primarily targets the property of Ukrainians who fled to Ukrainian government-controlled territory or abroad.

Once a property is listed, the legal owner is often given an impossibly short window, sometimes as little as 30 days, to appear in person with Russian-issued identification and property documents to reclaim their assets. This forces Ukrainians to an impossible choice: return to occupied territory and accept Russian citizenship, or forfeit their homes.

A tool for demographic change

This policy is not just looting; it is a systematic tool of demographic engineering. Reports from occupied cities like Mariupol have shown that seized apartments are being "nationalized" and then re-issued to Russian military personnel, collaborators, and Russian citizens (such as teachers, doctors, and construction workers) brought in from Russia.

This legalizes a "plunder by paperwork" that began in Crimea after its 2014 annexation and has now been accelerated in the occupied parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions. International law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention (specifically Article 33 prohibiting pillage and Article 46 protecting private property from confiscation), explicitly forbids an occupying power from confiscating private property.

Ukraine warns of “state-level robbery”

Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) issued a statement calling the Russian decree a cover for "state-level robbery." The CCD warned that the decree is a propaganda move intended to create a facade of legality for theft. Moscow's decision only confirms that the “alienation of ‘ownerless’ real estate is an element of a deliberate policy to displace the Ukrainian population from the temporarily occupied territories and settle these regions with Russian citizens loyal to the Kremlin,” the CCD said.