Utility shutoffs in occupied Mariupol used to facilitate property confiscation, Ukraine says
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Russian occupation authorities in Mariupol are disconnecting apartments from utilities as part of a process to identify and confiscate housing, Ukraine's National Resistance Center said on March 11.
According to the center, homeowners in Mariupol are being disconnected from utilities, including electricity, and told to contact "Energosbyt Donetsk," the main electricity supplier in the Russian proxy-controlled part of Donetsk Oblast. To restore service, residents must reissue all necessary documentation and provide information about the people living and registered there.
The National Resistance Center said that while the data update is presented as a "regular procedure," the personal information is handed over to occupation authorities and can then be used to facilitate the seizure of homes.
"The disconnection of utilities becomes the first stage of the mechanism for real estate redistribution," the National Resistance Center said.
This measure is part of a broader process through which occupation authorities identify, reclassify, and seize Ukrainian property
In December 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin effectively legalized property theft in Ukraine's occupied territories with a decree granting authorities the power to seize residential premises that "show signs of being ownerless." In reality, the owners have usually fled or been killed during Russia's full-scale invasion.
Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of the Occupation, told the Kyiv Independent that the law "officially legalized the process," saying it gave occupation authorities the power to "seize anyone's property at their own discretion, simply by refusing to accept the ownership documents."
Andriushchenko added that 5,000 apartments in Mariupol had been seized by Russian occupation authorities as of December 2025, with the number increasing by 100 to 200 per week.
Mariupol was besieged by Russian forces between February and May 2022, leaving thousands dead and reducing the city to rubble. According to the authorities' estimates, at least 25,000 people could have been killed during the siege of Mariupol, with exact numbers likely much higher. Despite this, some Ukrainian citizens still live under Russian occupation alongside Russians who moved there after the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
