Flats in Russian-held Luhansk to be given away to troops, migrant workers – South China Morning Post

The occupying forces in the Russian-annexed Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine are preparing to transfer residential property to military personnel, the Centre of National Resistance in Kyiv said on Sunday.

Flats would not only be handed over to Moscows occupying forces but also to migrants from Central Asia, the centre said.

The internationally unrecognised leadership in Luhansk is preparing corresponding laws. Many Ukrainians have fled the occupied territories and left their property behind.

Immigrants from Central Asia are mainly used as cheap labour by Russia not least for the reconstruction of towns and villages destroyed by the war.

According to a statement from the centre, the occupying forces are confiscating homes abandoned during the war and transferring them to homeless people.

Civilians are also being forcibly relocated from areas close to the front. Russian soldiers would then be housed in the civilian buildings, it said.

Russian state employees in Luhansk are being given flats abandoned by Ukrainians to carry out administrative tasks in the occupied territory, the centre said. Such flats and houses are offered for sale at low prices.

The Kremlin is promoting such resettlements because it wants to completely Russify the occupied territories, the statement said.

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The occupiers rejected recognising the documents on residential property issued in accordance with Ukrainian law. Instead, they demanded that ownership be formalised in accordance with Russian laws. Homeowners would thus be forced to first apply for a Russian passport and then go through Russian legal procedures.

The centre emphasised that the Russian approach was illegal and recommended that Ukrainian citizens keep original documents or certified copies of certificates of ownership. The Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly announced its intention to recapture the annexed territories.

Ukrainian citizens have also been expropriated on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Many homes, including one belonging to the family of President Volodymyr Zelensky, were seized by the Russian state.

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Flats in Russian-held Luhansk to be given away to troops, migrant workers - South China Morning Post