“We are not asking too much. Give us back what is ours!” Mariupol residents demand apartments in occupied Mariupol

Despite the decision to provide them with compensatory housing, Mariupol residents in the occupied city cannot get apartments in the houses the occupiers are building instead of the dismantled ones. Those are houses 3, 5, 7 Poltavska Street, 0629 reports.

New buildings are already being built on the site of houses 5 and 7. The occupiers immediately stated that this would be compensatory housing, not mortgage housing, which they mostly build. However, residents of the dismantled houses 5 and 7 Poltavska Street were denied apartments in the new buildings.

“Our house has been dismantled. A new building is being constructed on the site of our dismantled two-section house to replace the lost one. We, the residents of this house, are currently deprived of the right to receive apartments in our house, where we lived for many years, where our children grew up, and where we have many memories. We, the 29 owners of the destroyed housing, who have decisions on providing us with compensatory housing, are knocking on all the doors of the authorities with a single request to give us apartments in our house. We are not asking for much. We are asking: give us back our homes,” a woman says in a video address to the occupiers.

One of the residents of a dismantled house in the video refers to decision 175 from 30 July 2022. According to it, compensatory housing should be provided in a house built on the site of a dismantled one or within a quarter if it is impossible to rebuild the destroyed house.

However, in August 2023, the occupiers issued a new resolution, according to which compensatory housing is provided anywhere within Mariupol, and residents are not entitled to apply for apartments in houses that are being built on the site of dismantled ones.

So far, not a single person in Mariupol who has demanded the return of housing in Mariupol where they lived before has achieved their goal.