On July 16, 2026, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in the case of Bazhenov and Others v. Russia and Ukraine. The ruling establishes the responsibility of the Russian Federation for the systematic deprivation of property owners’ land plots in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as well as for violations of the rights to a fair trial and the protection of property.

Specifically, the case addresses events surrounding the deprivation of citizens’ rights to land plots on the Southern Coast of Crimea, which had been lawfully granted to them by the Ukrainian authorities of Sevastopol in 2009–2010 for country home construction. However, between 2015 and 2017, the occupation administration, acting through controlled “courts,” systematically revoked these titles without any compensation, claiming that the land allegedly belonged to the forest fund.

Importantly, in evaluating the practice of deprivation of property rights in the occupied territory, the ECHR referenced, among other sources, materials published on August 16, 2021, on the official page of the Crimea Platform. These data confirm the scale of confiscations: according to UN data, the list of “nationalized” property in Crimea contained over 4,600 real estate units as of 2017 alone, while according to the Platform’s own estimates, at least 3,800 land plots were confiscated between 2014 and 2017. 

The applicants appealed to the ECHR, which ruled the decisions of the occupation authorities invalid and confirmed that the citizens remain the lawful owners of their land. Furthermore, the Court noted that the actions of the occupation authorities violate Article 46 of the Regulations respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, annexed to the IV Hague Convention of 1907, which strictly prohibits the confiscation of private property in occupied territory. The Court also held that the Russian “courts” themselves do not constitute “tribunals established by law.”

The case of Bazhenov and Others v. Russia and Ukraine confirms that the confiscation of property in Crimea is a systematic unlawful practice of the occupying power and will serve as an important element of the evidence base for a future compensation mechanism.

We express our gratitude to the Agent of Ukraine before the European Court of Human Rights, Marharyta Sokorenko, the team of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, and all involved lawyers, analysts, and human rights defenders for their painstaking work in collecting evidence and consistently protecting the property rights of Ukrainians at the international level!

The full text of the judgment is available at: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/fre#{%22itemid%22:[%22001-251190%22]}