In occupied Mariupol, the homes of residents who fled or were killed are being declared “ownerless,” signed over to the state, and resold — through an administrative machine that documents itself.
This is a verifiable record of that machine: specific properties, tied to specific seizure acts, signed by named occupation officials — every source captured from the original and cryptographically hashed, built to support both restitution claims and criminal accountability.
Mariupol sits on the Sea of Azov coast. In spring 2022, Russian and Russian-backed forces encircled and besieged the city, advancing from the Russian-occupied east (Donetsk) and from Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.
What this shows
After the 2022 siege, Russia's occupation administration built a legal assembly line for taking property. A home is cut off from utilities, listed as “ownerless”, inspected, and — until a December 2025 law abolished even that step — handed to the municipality by an occupation court. The displaced owner is required to appear in person, with a Russian passport, within a fixed window to stop it: a condition designed to be impossible to meet.
What makes this documentable is that each stage leaves a dated, signed record. The same registries, decrees, and court dockets meant to legitimize the seizures are the evidence of them. This project assembles those records into one queryable spine, cross-checks each property against independent sources — including a UN satellite damage assessment — and maps the chain of signatures from the city administration up to the Russian ministries and the developers who receive the cleared land.
Start with the master dossier (русская версия) for the whole picture, or open a single documented case below.
The exhibits
The full picture in one document: the timeline from invasion to the re-registration deadline, the seizure machine stage by stage, who operates it, and how the evidence holds together.
Open the dossier → System mapThe machine itself, rung by rung — from “ownerless” designation through court transfer, demolition, land reallocation, rebuild and resale — each step tied to the decree that authorizes it.
Trace the pipeline →Five years of Russian property law, from a 2020 Crimea border decree to the law that finally removed the courts from the process — and the Ukrainian ownership model it overrides, side by side.
Trace the genealogy → русская версия →Four buildings decreed for demolition, then restored rather than razed — while ownership was stripped through the registry anyway, the apartments re-listed as compensation housing for others, and residents shut out.
Open the case →A demolished building reborn under a new address on the same footprint, its apartments sold into a subsidized-mortgage market — the demolish→rebuild→resell pattern, documented end to end.
Open the case → русская версия →Three buildings, scores of individual flats registered as “ownerless,” specific units then reposted again and again on occupation resale channels within weeks.
Open the case →Five consecutive buildings, each with a documented courtyard grave from the 2022 siege, demolished and reallocated under five sequential decrees to one developer for one branded condominium complex — no exhumation recorded.
Open the case → русская версия →2,694 rulings across Mariupol’s four courts converted “ownerless” homes into municipal title — 33 named judges, two cases decoded end to end, and the finding that none of the records name a street address. The same pattern now holds region-wide: 8,271 cases across 26 DNR courts, 87% granted, the address redacted on every published ruling.
Open the case → русская версия →Sixty residents fought their building’s seizure through three levels of Russian courts and lost each time — and the losing record holds the proof: a demolition contract dated two years after the building was already rubble.
Open the case → русская версия →A 73-year-old resident, a power of attorney the administration won’t recognize, and two printed “SEALED” notices on an apartment door — the first dated, photographed enforcement act behind a registry designation, instead of just the paperwork.
Open the case → Interactive · geospatialEvery documented case study, grave site, and recorded mass-casualty courtyard, plotted against the full geocoded property-seizure spine — click any marker for sourcing and a link to the full exhibit.
Open the map → Interactive · who operates itThe command chain and beneficiaries as a navigable graph — officials, judges, contractors and developer companies — with overlays for the relevant Rome Statute provisions.
Explore the network → Methodology · provenanceEvery category of source behind this archive — occupation court portals, registries, developer and corporate-ownership records, Telegram, resale marketplaces, satellite imagery, and the legal/journalistic context — with counts drawn straight from the chain-of-custody log.
See the full catalogue →How it was built
Occupation records are evidence of the act of seizure — never valid title. Ukraine does not recognize the occupation's registrations, courts, or decrees, and neither does this project. They are presented here as self-incriminating documentation of an unlawful process, not as lawful ownership.
Lawful owners who are living private individuals are not named in these materials; identifying detail is minimized and held separately as sensitive personal data. Named occupation officials, judges, and beneficiaries acting in an official capacity are in scope for accountability. The deceased shown in the casualty records are drawn from public memorial sources.