Residents of Mariupol have been waiting for housing for months. New ones are being built instead of their destroyed houses, but Russians are buying apartments in them

Mariupol residents who lost their homes as a result of Russian shelling have been seeking for months the right to receive new property from the Russian authorities. However, as Kholod writes , many new apartments have already been sold to the military and other Russians, while Mariupol residents are forced to live in dilapidated buildings and stand in queues for months.

According to UN estimates, as a result of military operations in Mariupol, up to 90% of multi-storey residential buildings were damaged or destroyed. Many local residents still have not received new apartments to replace the destroyed ones.

A resident of a house on Nakhimov Street, damaged by shelling, received a positive response to her application for a compensation apartment on March 14, 2023. However, already in August, the woman received a new message that “the local authorities changed their minds and decided” that she did not have the right to this housing. “And for six months my husband and I have been wandering the streets of the city, while apartments are being sold in my building,” she says.

Another resident of this house, Anna, told Kholod that in order to apply for a new apartment, you need to collect a lot of documents, which is often difficult, since many Mariupol residents have had all their property burned down. In addition, everyone who had shared ownership of an apartment must submit documents, and many city residents have relatives who have disappeared, died or left. Local lawyers refuse assistance in preparing statements of claim to the courts for fear that they will be “deprived of practice.”

Other problems include the Russian authorities changing Mariupol addresses. When a new one is installed, the previous address is canceled, after which the registration becomes invalid and it becomes more difficult for people to prove that they lived there. Mariupol residents have to stand in huge queues.

According to Maria, who leads a group of 50 people who lived in the Mariupol “House with a Clock,” only 11 of her neighbors received approval for new apartments. They are going to provide housing in a house other than the one that is being built on the site of the destroyed one. Maria herself cannot apply for an apartment, since all her documents for the previous one were burned.

Anna told Kholod that many townspeople are also faced with the impossibility of inheriting.

“This happened to my friends. Man and woman. The man was shot by snipers, and the woman died from a bomb explosion. Dozens of people saw this and they confirm it. Their daughter still hasn't gotten over it. And the prosecutor’s office told her: “Why didn’t you collect the remains in a little bag?” No body, no case,” she said.

New residential buildings in Mariupol are being built, among others, by the RKS-Novorossiya company. According to its director Ildar Sharipov, housing in new regions is bought not only by local residents, but also by Russian builders and military personnel who want to stay “either for rehabilitation, or for peace, or for a vacation at sea.” “[Mariupol] is now a really moneyed place,” he said in a conversation with Vedomosti.

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