MFA says plundered assets by Russia in occupied territories will have to be returned
The policy of confiscating the property of Ukrainian citizens in the territories occupied by Russia is aimed not only at expropriation but also at the targeted destruction of the Ukrainian people, Russification, and the seizure of Ukrainian territories, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Heorhiy Tykhyi said in a commentary on a Human Rights Watch report.
"Pursuant to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the forcible alteration of the ethnic composition of a population is classified as genocide if these actions are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national group. A key condition for establishing accountability for this crime is proving criminal intent. In this context, Russia’s elevation of its colonizing ambitions to the status of state programs, development strategies, or laws significantly simplifies this stage of work for Ukrainian and international justice," Tykhyi emphasized.
He recalled that the report by the human rights organization Human Rights Watch carefully documented a campaign of illegal "re-registration" of real estate, which is based on a series of illegal requirements that are impossible for legal owners to fulfill.
"Russian authorities continue to flagrantly violate the norms of international humanitarian law, deliberately altering the demographics of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and settling them with individuals from the Russian Federation and foreign nationals, particularly from Central Asia, Africa, and the Caucasus," Tykhyi said, adding that Moscow is effectively repeating its own crimes of the last century, when people were settled in the homes of repressed ‘enemies of the people.’
The MFA emphasized that the illegal expropriation of state, municipal, and private property by Russia and its occupation administrations in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine is null and void. It does not provide any legal grounds for property ownership for anyone other than the legal owners and will be subject to cancellation in the future.
"The scale of plunder during Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is unprecedented. Ukraine will continue to employ every national and international legal instrument to bring this to global attention and to recover the stolen property. All instances of looting will be meticulously documented, ensuring that perpetrators face inevitable accountability and that property is returned to its rightful owners," Tykhyi said.
