Three months absent from your shop in occupied Luhansk? Russia declares it “ownerless” and takes it

Russian occupation authorities in temporarily occupied Luhansk have flagged a new batch of commercial properties for "nationalization," the Luhansk Regional Military Administration in exile reported. A three-month owner absence, or unpaid utility bills, is enough to qualify a building as "ownerless." The move extends the same seizure model that the occupation administration has already applied to housing in the city.

After the apartments, the shops

The occupation administration has flagged 150 commercial properties as "ownerless," Luhansk OVA head Oleksii Kharchenko wrote on Telegram.

"Russians are planning to 'nationalize' 150 commercial properties in Luhansk. Following residential real estate, they have begun inspecting non-residential properties as well. So far, they have identified about 150 buildings showing signs of being 'ownerless.' These may include not only long-abandoned properties, but also those whose owners have not appeared for just three months, or where utility bills have not been paid," Kharchenko wrote.

This expands a confiscation campaign that already targeted nearly 8,000 apartments in the same occupied city. Since March 2026, occupation rules treat any housing missing from Russia's "state registry" as "ownerless." Owners are given 30 days to fix the paperwork or face seizure. Property can also be seized for over a year of unpaid utilities or three consecutive months of owner absence.

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Russia declares nearly 8,000 Luhansk apartments “ownerless” for “nationalization”

Russia has also annulled Ukrainians' real-estate powers of attorney in occupied parts of Luhansk Oblast.

The fake reconstruction vote

The occupation authorities stage fake "improvement" through online polls, promising to restore selected sites next year. But infrastructure rigs the vote: in many settlements, residents simply cannot reach the platform.

"In particular, the internet has been cut off entirely in frontline cities. No connection — no reconstruction. This has led to a situation where the voting winners are cities Russia captured back in 2014 that practically escaped combat and destruction — Alchevsk, Rovenky, Khrustalnyi. Residents of destroyed settlements have once again become hostages of the conditions Russia created for them," Kharchenko added.

A pattern across four occupied oblasts

Russia's Luhansk push fits a broader seizure pattern Moscow has rolled out across all four occupied Ukrainian regions. Russia's occupation administrations had marked at least 25,000 homes for confiscation across the four oblasts by fall 2025. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed federal legislation in December 2025. It lets occupation administrations confiscate property where ownership "cannot be established" — which includes the homes of those who fled the Russian occupation.