It has been two years since the fighting in Mariupol but the city’s residents who survived the siege are now themselves forced to fight with the occupation authorities. Their apartments were taken away.
Expensive land in the historical center of Mariupol was given to Russian developers for mortgage housing. The land is transferred to them without bidding by orders of “Head of the DPR” Denis Pushilin.
Native residents only get apartments, if any, on the outskirts, while the compensation for destroyed property can only buy you a doghouse or a grave space, as locals put it. They believe that apartments in the new buildings, erected where their houses were, are only affordable to Russians.
ASTRA is telling how the large-scale construction of mortgage housing in the war-torn city left tens of thousands of people homeless.
As of the publication of this article, the people featured still live in occupied Mariupol. Their names have been changed for security reasons.
History rebuilt
The House with a Clock on Mira Avenue in downtown Mariupol used to be one of the “calling cards” of the city in peacetime. This is a four-story residential building built during Stalin’s time, a five-minute walk from the Mariupol Drama Theater. On March 16, 2022, the day when a Russian air bomb destroyed the Drama Theater, another bomb fell in the yard of the House with a Clock, says its former resident Tatyana.
The bomb killed three people, leaving a huge crater in the yard, says Tatyana. She claims that the bomb was dropped from a Russian aircraft, as there were no Ukrainian aircrafts over the city that day. However, Tatyana does not blame the Russian military—she says that she warned her neighbors to stay in the shelter but they went out to the yard.
Tatyana was the chairwoman of the House with a Clock before the Russian invasion. During the siege, she took charge of the basement bomb shelter, where about 150 people were taking refuge from the fighting. “I helped put out fires, feed and water the elderly and children. People were coming and leaving. We stopped people passing by, whose homes were destroyed or who were trying to get to relatives, and offered to stay with us,” Tatyana recalls.
Today, a Russian remake of the House with a Clock is being prepared in its place—a seven-story brick building of a similar shape, built from scratch. It is currently covered with scaffolding and the clock tower has not yet been completed. Mariupol residents perceive the new house for 890 million rubles [$10.7 million] as looking more like a hotel but all the apartments in it had already been sold out by early 2024. Not a single one was given to a pre-war resident of the house.
Tatyana’s apartment was taken away under the pretext that the House had been rebuilt:
“[Local authorities] said we should not panic but wait to get an apartment in the same place. They gave us many verbal promises. [“Head of the DPR” Denis] Pushilin said that a new house would be built in the place of every demolished one. They emphasized at the time that it would be not just built but built for us. But in the end, they’re telling us that we have lost our property rights since the house was demolished. There’s a right to inherit but there’s no property to inherit. This is a problem for all residents of the city,” the woman says.
Instead of apartments, residents of the House with a Clock were offered compensation of 45 thousand rubles [€500] per square meter [$50/sq.ft.]. One person is entitled to up to 33 square meters [355 sq.ft.] per person, which makes 1.4 million rubles [$16,716]. In the still unfinished new House with a Clock, a one-room apartment could be purchased for at least 5 million rubles [$60 thousand] and a two-room apartment for at least 8.5 million [$100 thousand], with a 3-million [$36 thousand] mortgage down payment.
One advantage of the housing estate, as stated on the website of the new House with a Clock, is that the “Drama Theater and other facilities” are within “walking distance” from it.
“The majestic style of Stalinist architecture sets the tone for the urban space <…> 15-minute-walk at a leisurely pace to the sea.” As is proper, the ground floor accommodates commercial premises for rent, and there is also “provision” for a museum of monumental artist Viktor Arnautov in the house. There once was his workshop in the House.
Tatyana, like other ASTRA interlocutors, is convinced that mortgage apartments in new and reconstructed buildings in Mariupol are beyond the means of city residents. Thus, the occupation authorities “are driving out the Mariupol population,” as another ASTRA interlocutor put it.
“If you don’t move out, we will demolish the house with you.”
Former residents of 77 Metallurgists Avenue told ASTRA that all their neighbors who stayed in Mariupol live either at their relatives’ or in basements, garages, or summer cottages.
House No. 77 should have actually been restored, not demolished, says former resident Olga. After the city was occupied, gas supply to the house damaged by shelling was restored, and plastic windows and new radiators installed. Local television even reported that the house would be repaired, the woman claims. The demolition of house No. 77 was suddenly announced in April 2023. No explanations, documents, or expert findings were provided to the residents. According to Olga, people were evicted with the warning, “If you do not move out, we will demolish the house with you inside.”
“They didn’t show any documents, nothing. The developer just needed the land for mortgage construction. People were thrown out. We started protesting and someone from the administration came. They were like, ‘A rescue unit will drag you out and take you to a dormitory. No one will live here,’” says another resident of the building, Anna.
Anna had a three-room apartment in house No. 77 but her family is only entitled to compensation for one person since only her husband was registered there.
“That’s one and a half million rubles [$17 thousand]. What can we buy with it? A dog house? A square meter in our house costs 100–130 thousand [$1200–1500]. A two-room apartment costs 9 million rubles [$107 thousand]. But they didn’t give us anything, just threw us out. At least 30 thousand dollars were invested in my apartment for repairs. It was all intact. One window was damaged, everything else was intact. Like, move in and live. They just took it away. When my husband was saving apartments in the house, he almost burned. He poured water on everything he could. We risked our lives for I don’t know what—for being left homeless in our old age?” the woman asks.
Olga’s acquaintances from neighboring destroyed houses, who still managed to get on the waiting list for a new apartment, are receiving it not in the same place, but “out in the sticks” on the outskirts of the city.
The house of Olga and Anna is located in the historical center of Mariupol. The area is prestigious and there is an opportunity to buy an apartment with a sea view. It is in such places that mortgage housing is being built, as residents of Mariupol told ASTRA. “It’s without exception: all the places near the beach, an entire block on Azovstal Street have been demolished, they will be building there, in the port area where the sea is near and in the city center where the famous House with a Clock was,” says Olga.
Tatyana, the former chairwoman of the House with a Clock, also claims that her house was not planned to be demolished.
“Unfortunately, I trusted the authorities and did not hire a third-party expert. In my opinion, the house wasn’t badly damaged. Yes, it burned, but we had floor-bearing concrete beams. I went up to all the floors and looked—all the beams were in place. When they were demolishing the house, four excavators broke down as I was watching from the tower, meaning that the supporting structure turned out to be stronger than four excavators. Even the outer walls were fine,” the woman says.
Residents of the House with a Clock recently filed a class-action lawsuit for the illegal demolition of the house.
“This is savagery, treating people who trusted them like this. What are you doing? There are elderly men and women there. How come?” the woman asks. “This house was built by German POWs. As a symbol of victory over fascism. This is cultural heritage. And here, in the fight against fascism, they just screwed everyone. Frankly, I sometimes wonder where they’re more of a [Ukrainian], there or here. We are only holding out due to Russia’s support. Russia really doesn’t understand what is happening here. And here, thousands of people live in the street.”
How Mariupol residents become homeless
From March 18 to 22, Maria and her husband came under “insane shelling.”
“We were in the basement and left there our emergency bag with documents. A slab blocked the entrance. They were shelling with incendiary weapons, all 9 floors were burning. We ran out into the street in what we were wearing,” she recalls.
It took Maria almost a year and a half to recover her documents for the apartment as courts were not working in Mariupol. By the time she finally managed to do this, she found out that she could only get 45 thousand rubles [€500] per square meter [$50/sq.ft.]. “I said, ‘We are fire victims, we have nothing at all.’ They answered that they could do nothing. There is nowhere to live, we live in rented housing, no one cares about us.”
“We were normal people but became homeless. We live as best we can. There was nothing here, no medicines, no doctors. My husband’s relatives in St. Petersburg helped me get clothes and shoes. We’re struggling like a fish out of water,” says Maria.
Another ASTRA interlocutor, Maxim, became homeless because he was formally registered as the owner of a second home. Because of this, he is not entitled to compensation. “This is my ex-wife’s apartment—another family already lives there. Now I live wherever I can, wherever I’m allowed. At the moment, at my friends’ place. I only received 100 thousand rubles in compensation for the loss of all my property,” the man complains. Previously, he had a three-room apartment in Mariupol.
“A one-room apartment would cost around 5 million [$60 thousand], while they’re offering us 1.3 million [$15 thousand]. Is this compensation for my three-room apartment? This is a mockery. Everyone’s in a similar situation. The mortgage housing being built is definitely not for Mariupol residents. There’s hardly any work in Mariupol. Locals are not hired for construction. I worked at the Illich Works, the salary there is now 21 thousand rubles [$250]. What shall I pay a mortgage with? Even if I take the compensation, I can’t use it for a mortgage. I’m only allowed to spend this compensation on housing somewhere in the DPR. What can I buy? A shed in the countryside?” Maxim gets angry.
According to Maxim, it is harder for the owner to prove their registration in and ownership of an apartment in court after the address of the house has changed. Where demolished houses stood, new houses with different numbers are being built in the city. Renamed streets also cause difficulties, which is one of the first things that the occupation authorities took on. For example, they renamed Mira Avenue back to Lenin Avenue already in June 2022.
Oksana’s house was destroyed when the Russian army invaded the city and her husband got killed. He was the owner. She has still not been able to obtain a certificate of inheritance in order to apply for compensation. She is now alone with her four children, renting half of a private house, but it was sold recently, so she needs to move out as soon as possible. “The hostel offered by the administration does not have the conditions for three children of different sexes and a baby, while renting an apartment is very expensive, I don’t have such money!” says Oksana.
Natalia was also offered to live in the hostel. She had an apartment in a municipal house that disappeared from the “DPR” authorities’ resolution on compensation at some point, the woman claims.
According to Natalia, the occupation authorities did not compensate the residents of the apartments owned by the municipality:
Deputy [Human Rights Commissioner Sergei] Kovalev told me, ‘Russian Federation laws don’t apply in your case, it’s the DPR laws that apply. Go to Kyiv and present your claims there. Russia doesn’t owe you anything.’ We are citizens of Russia, we have received our passports. We’d like the laws of Russia to have regard for us,” the woman says.
Natalia appealed to the local administration, wrote addresses to the State Duma, the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Construction, Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova, and Chairwoman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko. She and 453 other people signed a collective appeal to Head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin. The Investigative Committee passed the investigation on to the “DPR,” and the “DPR” passed it on to Mariupol.
As a result, local authorities offered the woman a bed in a men’s room for 8–10 people in a hostel. This is the only help they can give her. “We were paid 100 thousand [$1198] rubles as people affected by combat activities, and that’s it. I was told in the Mariupol administration that about 8 thousand families are in this situation,” Natalia claims.
Saniya Denisova, a volunteer from Penza who helps refugees from Mariupol, claims that she was contacted by five thousand Mariupol residents left without a home. According to her, pro-war and military bloggers refused to cover this problem, offering her to buy an advertising post for astronomical amounts of money. This induced her to launch a flash mob sending letters to various Russian authorities, including the presidential administration.
Appeals addressed to the head of the Presidential Administration Anton Vaino from residents of Mariupol
The comment section under the post about the experience with pro-war bloggers is filled with accounts of city residents left without housing:
“I submitted my documents two times, the last one in February 2024. Decision: postponed due to no house status. They’re stalling for time, while we are waiting and homeless. I really want to go back home but there’s none. <…> I lost my apartment, my son and grandson got killed. I am 74 years old, I have suffered from diabetes for many years. I lived in Mariupol, <…> Latyshev Street, apartment 72, the house was burned down, all the property in the apartment, they’re refusing to provide an apartment, forcing me to receive compensation, I don’t need compensation, I’m left with a son without an apartment and his wife got killed, leaving a 13-year-old girl an orphan <…> Our Azovstal Street in the Stadium district of Mariupol was renamed Tula Avenue without asking our opinion!!! They don’t give a damn about us, they changed the name in that manner and now we’re homeless and left with no registered residence! Thus, they paved the way for themselves to build mortgage housing where our houses were! This is a cry from the heart”.
Maria, the woman whose emergency bag has burned, also says that her numerous appeals to Russian officials have gone unanswered. “We wrote to Putin and Bastrykin. <…> [Deputy Prime Minister Marat] Khusnullin reported that there were no problems with housing in Mariupol. New microdistricts have been built, they’re beautiful. Yes, beautiful. But this is very little. Only people who had documents in order received them. The picture is very beautiful. And everything else is backfilled pits around the city.”
“A Step into a Happy Future” with 2.5m [8.2ft.] ceilings at 2% from Promsvyazbank
Olga from 77 Metallurgists Ave. says that her neighbors tried to demand apartments through rallies. They even joined the rally of residents of 82 Nakhimov Avenue. The latter were among the first to publicly declare that they were left without a home due to mortgage construction. At the rally, Olga says, the residents of the center “were promised something again” in order to avoid a “mass gathering”, and so the people left the rally.
In May 2024, a large “SELLING” sign with a phone number appeared on one of the windows of the mortgaged building on Nakhimov 82.
Where the house of Olga and Anna was, the Leningradsky Quartal housing estate is being built. The developer’s website calls buying an apartment in a new building with a mortgage “a step into a happy future.” It is unclear who this housing is intended for, but the estate’s website has been translated into English, Georgian, and Latvian.
The construction is funded by Promsvyazbank, the first Russian bank to operate in the occupied territories. It was given all construction in Mariupol, as well as the central banks of the “LPR” and the “DPR”. Promsvyazbank also sells apartments in the city on preferential mortgages, including in the Leningradsky Quartal. Early this year, it was announced that it issued more than 200 loans worth about one billion rubles [$12 million] for the purchase of apartments in Mariupol.
Leningradsky Quartal is being built by SU-2007 company. Since the summer of 2022, it has been headed by Sergei Kuts, who previously held the position of Minister of Construction of the Rostov region. Before that, he spent 8 years heading the Capital Construction Customer Department of the Southern Military District of the RF Ministry of Defense.
SU-2007 is owned by Krasnodar businessman Alexander Zentsev, who is under Ukrainian sanctions. He is also a co-owner of the Krasnodar Plant “Neftemash” and the beneficiary of several other Krasnodar companies. Zentsev had a successful year: it was reported in February that he became the owner of a large energy sales company, Yugstroy-Energosbyt, previously owned by Viktor Budarin, a famous banker of Southern Russia.
“Who are they building housing for? These houses are listed on many Russian websites, for either St. Petersburg or other cities. Apparently, Russians are buying it. Because you’re unlikely to buy an apartment for 8 million [$96 thousand] here in Mariupol, given the compensation that you may get. All this construction funded by this difference—between 45 and 100 thousand [of compensation per square meter]. This housing is then sold for our money,” says Olga from house No. 77.
“Even to get a mortgage, you need to be under 35 and have an income, while official salaries here in Mariupol are 20 to 22 thousand rubles [$250],” Olga’s neighbor Anna supports her.
“Ownerless” apartments
Before the New Year, Tamara discovered that the apartment in the Primorsky district, where her children and two underage grandchildren were registered, was added to the list of “ownerless” apartments.
Last year, occupation mayor of Mariupol Morgun issued an order to transfer “ownerless” housing in Mariupol to municipal property. Local authorities then started publishing lists of such apartments. Tamara found her apartment in one of them. From the moment the list is published, the owner is given 30 days to return to the city and prove to the district administration that they are alive and still own the property.
Tamara says that she managed to bring all the documents to the district administration within the specified period but they “simply didn’t acknowledge them, and that’s all.”
“All utilities are paid, I have a contract with the housing maintenance office, but it’s impossible to remove it from this register. No one acknowledges the documents here. I mentioned everywhere that my two young grandchildren are registered there—it’s useless, it’s like a wall. They label ‘ownerless’ entire apartment blocks with people living in them, even owners with documents, and then we run around in circles to prove it. Especially our Primorsky district is a very sweet place with the sea and parks nearby. Apartments have always been expensive there. The residents didn’t just get them for nothing. My children bought them. I heard from lawyers that courts already have 400 cases where they’re about to be transferred to municipal property. People have moved to different places and we cannot even defend the housing we have saved. Russian laws have no effect here,” the woman says.
“Prime Minister of the DPR” Yevgeny Solntsev said at the recent St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that he had already counted “20 to 30 thousand ownerless apartments and private houses” in Mariupol. According to him, some of this property will be demolished.
Some Mariupol residents who left for abroad managed to timely execute a power of attorney for their property to a relative, friend, or neighbor through Russian consulates. However, local residents say that, since mid-April, all administrations have begun to require the owner’s presence in person. If the owner cannot return to the city and has no one to execute a power of attorney to, they can say goodbye to their property.
Since October 16 last year, the “DPR” real estate registry service suddenly stopped accepting applications from residents with Ukrainian passports. “Public services centers don’t even accept applications! And it turns out that the owner of a property cannot even receive the formal rejection of registration to subsequently appeal against it,” says the collective appeal of Mariupol residents to the service manager, which ASTRA has reviewed. Employees explained this by some kind of “internal order” that shall not be shown to anyone.
Residents have repeatedly written about this to Putin. “It is absolutely obvious that most of these properties are not ownerless. It is just that people cannot return to Mariupol now for objective reasons, some for health reasons, some for lack of finances. In order to come to the city through Europe and Russia, one person has to spend 450 euros on average. For a family of four, this is almost 2,000 euros. For many, this is an unaffordable amount at the moment! People are left with nothing, they must be given time! A huge number of pensioners are simply unable to cover the distance, which now takes about five days on average (in a sitting position), given the idle time and border checks,” says the collective appeal of Mariupol residents to Putin, which was obtained by ASTRA.
People write in the letter that this is already their second appeal. The first one was sent to the “DPR” government but they “ignored” it.
“Our land has somehow passed to municipal ownership since August 11, 2023. On what grounds did this happen? Maybe our prosecutor’s office should deal with this issue and not forward it all to the head of the administration and not send us formal replies? They renamed our Azovstal Street to Tula Avenue without asking the opinion of Mariupol residents, thus leaving us with no registered residence and also paving the way for themselves to build mortgage housing where our listed houses were!” says another video appeal to Putin from residents of the left bank.
