Yuliia Didenko, Editor-in-Chief of the relocated media outlet Novyny Donbas, joined the United News national telethon on ICTV to discuss the findings of the outlet’s latest investigation into so-called “ownerless” housing in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. During the broadcast, she explained how the Russian occupation authorities are using this mechanism to confiscate the property of Ukrainian citizens in Mariupol.
According to the Novyny Donbas investigation, the occupation administration has added approximately 25,000 apartments and private houses to its list of “ownerless” property, with plans to transfer them into municipal ownership. Property owners were given until July 1, 2026, to prove their ownership rights. Journalists from Novyny Donbas analyzed the lists published by the occupation administration in Mariupol and cross-referenced them with open-source information and data from the legitimate Mariupol City Council.
During the interview, Yuliia Didenko explained that, in practice, the only way for Ukrainians to preserve ownership of their homes was to comply with the Russian administrative procedure, which requires obtaining a Russian passport and registering the property in Russia’s state real estate registry.
“The rules are the same for everyone: if you want to keep your home, you first have to obtain a passport of the Russian Federation and then register your property in the so-called Rosreestr. Even people who fled to government-controlled Ukraine or abroad after the siege of Mariupol were forced to return to the occupied city, go through all these procedures, collect documents, and wait in enormous queues,” Didenko said.
According to the journalist, the process was not only humiliating but also dangerous for many property owners.
“Recently, the only practical way to enter the occupied territory has been through Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. People were subjected to filtration procedures: their fingerprints and DNA samples were taken, they were photographed, and their mobile phones were searched. Even after all of that, many people were still denied entry. As the Rosreestr registration deadline approached, the number of people who were refused entry increased significantly.”
The investigation also highlights the scale of the confiscation of Ukrainian property. According to Novyny Donbas, around 15% of Mariupol’s pre-war housing stock has already been classified as “ownerless.” The actual share may be even higher, as hundreds of apartment buildings were either completely destroyed by Russian shelling or demolished by the occupation authorities after the city was seized.
