Residential building in Donetsk with apartments "with signs of ownerlessness." Screenchot from Google Maps

At least 823 addresses of real estate “with signs of ownerlessness” published occupation administrations in four regions of Ukraine in the third week of October 2024, from 14 to 20 October. In the eight weeks since the start of the count, at least 6,656 addresses of “property with signs of ownerlessness” have been published.

The relevant announcements of the occupation municipal and regional administrations state that the owners of such property can claim their rights to it by contacting the occupation administrations in person with an identity document, taxpayer identification number and documents certifying the right to the property.

If the owners do not come forward with the documents within 30 days of the announcement, their property will be transferred to “state” or “municipal” ownership.

The text of the announcements makes it clear that property owners must present Russian documents.

As can be seen from the announcements, the property audits are taking place in all Russian-occupied territories except Crimea, including those parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions over which Ukraine lost control in 2014-2015. Russia annexed all the ocvupief territories in September 2022, but in the parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions occupied since 2014-2015, property had been taken away from its rightful owners long before the annexation. Since recently, property owners in all occupied territories have been required to register their property with the Russian State Register.

In the second week of October, as in the previous weeks, the occupation administrations in the Luhansk “republic” published the most addresses of real estate “with signs of ownerlessness.” The occupation administrations of Mariupol (118 addresses) in the Donetsk region and Krasnodon “municipal district” (88 addresses) in the Luhansk region published the largest number of such properties.

The occupation administration of Donetsk, the largest city in the occupied territories, which published a long list of addresses (62 addresses) for the first time since the beginning of the monitoring the week before last, this time published 65 more addresses on the city’s central streets. Donetsk has been occupied since 2014.

A significant number of local occupation administrations have consistently published round or repeatedly the same number of addresses of real estate “with signs of ownerlessness” (5, 10, 20 addresses each), which may indicate that they have certain regulatory requirements set for them.

The occupation administrations in the Zaporizhzhia region have not published lists of property “with signs of ownerlessness” since mid-September. However, the relevant section on the website of the occupation administration of the Zaporizhzhia region shows that residential and commercial property has been audited there since 2022.

As in the rest of the occupied territories, except for Crimea, the intensification of this activity in the Zaporizhzhia region falls in the spring and summer of 2024. For example, in July, the occupation administration of the region published 1,105 addresses of mostly private real estate, and in some cases, it was about confirming ownership of part of a property (presumably in cases where some family members left and the rest remained in the occupied territories). In June 2024, there were 237 such addresses, while in May there were 1,245.

The occupation administration of Mariupol currently publishes the most addresses. The tables it publishes show the extent of the city’s destruction and depopulation. For example, according to the summary data of the occupation administration of Mariupol, published on 20 September, 497 non-residential premises and 4,213 residential premises “with signs of ownerlessness” were found in the city. Another 1,564 premises, according to the occupation administration, have been excluded from the list of ownerless premises, which means that their owners have been found and were able to confirm their ownership rights.

Lists of real estate “with signs of ownerlessness” or “ownerless” in the occupied parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions can be difficult to find. Some occupation administrations in these territories publish fresh lists in the news feeds on their “official” websites, while others, even within the same region, publish them in special sections.

In some cases, it is a single list that is constantly updated, without a publication date, making it absurd to require owners to come forward within 30 days oafter the publication of their property address.

Most of the websites of occupation administrations in the Donetsk region are virtually inaccessible to users outside of Russia, while some of these administrations do not publish the addresses of “property with signs of ownerlessness” on their social media pages.

On 18 October, the occupation administration of the Kherson region published duplicate lists of “property with signs of ownerlessness” three times, for the Nyzhni Sirohozy, Verkhniy Rohachyk and Hola Prystan “municipal districts” – probably a technical error, which leaves concerned owners wondering whether some lists were mistakenly not published instead.

The occupation administration of the Russian-occupied Lutuhyne municipal district does not inform owners of the possibility of their property being declared “ownerless”: no relevant lists can be found on the website or on the administration social media pages. Nevertheless, on 4, 8 and 9 October, it published “resolutions” declaring 48 properties “ownerless”, i.e. in the process of being transferred to “municipal” ownership.

Local media report difficulties with registration or confirmation of ownership of real estate in the occupied territories due to the lack or complete absence of notaries.

In addition, there are reports of an increase in the number of cases of Ukrainian refugees failing to pass the filtering measures in Russia who are trying to return from abroad in order to obtain Russian documents and confirm their ownership of property in the occupied territories. Entry to the occupied territories of Ukraine from outside Russia is possible only after passing a special check at the Russian Sheremetyevo airport by representatives of the Russian special services.

Residents of the occupied territories can obtain a Russian passport only until the end of 2024. Those locals who are unwilling or unable to do so will have only the rights of foreigners under Russian law in their occupied regions.

Nevertheless, according to, the Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, more and more internally displaced Ukrainians are returning to the occupied territories. Among the reasons are the lack of state material support, unpredictability of Ukrainian policy towards IDPs and growing tensions between them and residents of the communities where they have been forced to move.