BBC Investigation: Russia Has Seized or Is Seeking to Take Over More Than 34,000 Ukrainian Properties in Occupied Areas

An investigation by BBC Verify and BBC Russian has found that more than 34,000 properties belonging to Ukrainian citizens have either been confiscated or listed for seizure in Ukrainian territories under Russian occupation.

According to the findings, Moscow-installed authorities are stripping Ukrainian owners of their homes, with the aim of transferring them to people holding Russian passports or using them for the occupation administration.

The data reviewed show that, since 2024, a total of 34,002 apartments, houses and holiday homes have been identified in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Russian authorities have targeted not only private properties but also thousands of businesses, including offices and hotels.

Among the documented cases is that of Ihor Ivashchuk, an evangelical pastor from Melitopol. Because of the Russian occupation and the need to secure medical treatment for his wife, he left the city in 2022.

Before leaving, he entrusted his home to a friend. However, in late 2024, he learned that people dressed in military uniforms had demanded documents proving ownership. Several months later, his friend was evicted from the home, and the property no longer belonged to the pastor.

The investigation reveals that Ukrainian owners are formally notified only in rare cases when their properties are classified as “ownerless.” To avoid losing them, they must obtain Russian citizenship, appear in person in the occupied territories within 30 days and undergo strict security checks, a process that exposes them to the risk of arrest.

The practice was first reported by BBC Verify in Mariupol, where about 5,700 properties were identified for seizure over the past year. Russian President Vladimir Putin later signed a law formalizing the process in the four illegally annexed regions.

The investigation also presents the case of a family from Mariupol. For security reasons, the owner’s daughter was identified using the pseudonym Ivanna. She said her father had built the house for her mother, who had cancer, and that the property held the family’s memories. Despite this, in April, occupation authorities notified her grandparents that the home had been included on the list of properties targeted for seizure.

Documents analyzed by BBC Verify show that in just one residential block in Mariupol, 61 apartments have been classified as “ownerless.” Meanwhile, in the same area, 393 apartments across 17 buildings have been identified for seizure.

The vast scale of the property seizures in the occupied territories and the consequences for thousands of Ukrainian families forced to abandon their homes are among the main concerns raised by the investigation.