In Genichesk district of Kherson region, occupants occupy Ukrainian houses

Activists have recorded another wave of misappropriation of property in the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson region. In the Genichesk district, the occupation administration has launched a large-scale campaign to re-register private houses whose owners have left the region due to the war and occupation.

The Crimean Tatar Resource Center wrote about it.

This process is carried out under the guise of identifying and nationalizing so-called 'ownerless' property.

The mechanism of seizure usually includes an inventory, during which representatives of the occupation authorities check the houses for residents. If the rightful owners cannot personally present the original Russian-type ownership documents within a short period of time, the property is put on special lists. Subsequently, such properties are transferred to the ownership of the occupation communities or settled by collaborators, Russian military personnel and migrants from remote regions of Russia.

Such actions constitute a gross violation of international law, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the occupying power from appropriating private property in the occupied territories. The lawyers emphasize that any transactions and entries in the occupation registers have no legal force in Ukraine and internationally, and the legal rights of the owners will be restored after the region is de-occupied.

The systematic appropriation of real estate in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine has gained official status under Russian law. The law signed by Vladimir Putin, which will be in force until 2030, effectively legalizes the expropriation of housing in Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions. According to this document, the occupation administrations are empowered to recognize property as 'ownerless' and transfer it to their ownership if the rightful owners cannot prove their rights in person and according to Russian standards.

Human rights activists, in particular the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, emphasize that such actions are a direct act of forced deprivation of property rights. This not only violates the Constitution of Ukraine, but also contradicts the principles of international humanitarian law. The Fourth Geneva Convention clearly prohibits the Occupying Power from confiscating or appropriating private property of civilians, qualifying such acts as a war crime.

Катерина Глушко