Report: Russian occupation authorities systematically label and seize Ukrainian homes as “ownerless”

Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that Russian occupation authorities are systematically taking over Ukrainian civilian property in occupied areas by labeling homes and other real estate “ownerless,” then using Russia-installed courts to transfer them to municipal ownership, while administrative, citizenship and travel barriers make it nearly impossible for many displaced Ukrainians to stop the seizures.

In a report published May 26, Human Rights Watch said the process has put homes, apartments and other property at risk across occupied parts of Ukraine, with consequences for people who fled fighting and now face losing housing, rental income and a realistic chance of reclaiming what they own. The rights group said it interviewed 25 Ukrainian civilians who own property in or recently traveled from occupied areas, mostly between January and November 2025, and also spoke with Ukrainian officials, activists and lawyers. It said it reviewed more than 300 judgments issued between March 2024 and January 2026 by courts established by Russian authorities in occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk, and identified 8,116 publicly available court cases involving property seizures across 25 courts in occupied territories. Of those, 2,113 decisions had been published when Human Rights Watch searched.

Human Rights Watch documented 16 first-hand cases in which occupation authorities designated properties owned by identifiable Ukrainians as “ownerless.” In two of those cases, it said, the property was seized without notice to the owners.

According to the group, occupation authorities first identify properties as showing signs of being “ownerless,” often because they have not been re-registered in Russia’s property registry or because utility bills have gone unpaid for a long period. A notice is then published, and owners have 30 days to appear in person. Authorities can then formally designate the property “ownerless” and later ask a court to transfer it to municipal ownership.

Human Rights Watch said that in practice, the system is stacked against displaced Ukrainians. It found that Ukrainian passport holders are routinely unable to re-register property, while only Russian passport holders can effectively challenge an “ownerless” designation. Legal representatives also face restrictions.

Travel requirements create another obstacle. Ukrainians seeking to enter occupied territory generally must travel through Russia and undergo screening by the Federal Security Service, or FSB, in a process known as “filtration.” Human Rights Watch cited the Ukrainian civil society group East SOS as saying only about one in four people going through that process are allowed to proceed.

The group said Russia formalized the process in late 2025 through federal legal changes and moved a property re-registration deadline forward from January 2028 to July 1, 2026. Human Rights Watch said courts often treated the absence of Russian registration alone as enough to transfer ownership, even when owners were known or utility bills were being paid.

U.N. figures suggest the practice is widespread. The U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported that by November 2025, occupation authorities had issued notices on more than 38,000 properties as potentially “abandoned,” and had already formally designated 5,557 properties as “abandoned” in occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russian official figures also indicate the scale of the exposure. Rosreestr, Russia’s state registry agency, said in August 2025 that 4.6 million real estate objects had been entered into the Russian register in the four occupied regions and that about 550,000 lacked documentation, putting them at risk.

For residents, the impact is immediate. Human Rights Watch said authorities in Mariupol have already begun transferring seized apartments to new residents. One displaced Mariupol resident quoted in the report described the logic this way: “It’s like they announce them ownerless while still admitting they have owners.”

Russia claimed to annex occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in 2022, but that annexation is not recognized under international law. Human Rights Watch said the property seizures are unlawful under the law of occupation, including the Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention, which require an occupying power to respect private property and prohibit confiscation or appropriation except where strictly required by military necessity. The group also said transferring the occupier’s own civilian population into occupied territory is prohibited under international law and can constitute a war crime under the Rome Statute.

Ukraine does not recognize decisions or ownership changes issued by occupation authorities and courts in occupied territories, according to the Ukrainian Ombudsperson’s office cited by Human Rights Watch.

“Millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes in areas under Russian occupation due to the ongoing war,” Yulia Gorbunova, associate Ukraine director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Now they also face the unlawful seizure of their property as Russia blatantly disregards its obligations as an occupying power.”