On selling property in the occupied territories - Ann-Dorit Boy in Der Spiegel:

‘Vladimir Putin's troops captured Tatyana's home village near the city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region right at the start of the invasion more than two years ago. Tatyana, who worked in the village administration at the time, says she didn't want to serve the occupiers. "They then came into my house, questioned me for a long time and searched everything," she says. Out of caution, Tatyana makes phone calls using an encrypted messenger service.

Not long after the occupiers visited her home, Tatyana fled with her mother, who requires care, to Ukrainian-controlled territory. The two women now live in a rented apartment in the regional capital of Zaporizhzhia. Tatyana left the keys to her home, the little house with four rooms that her parents-in-law once built, to a friend. The woman was to check in on the building every now and then.
One day she alerted Tatyana that Russians had driven up to the property with a car. Tatyana says her friend hasn't dared to go back ever since. "Because then the Russians sawed off all the locks and moved into my house." She heard from neighbors that the men living in her furnished home worked in traffic enforcement.’

(…)

‘In the Luhansk region, the occupying forces justified the expropriation on the grounds that the utility companies that supply water, electricity and heat could no longer go without the utility payments from the the abandoned apartments. They also claimed living space was needed since there were too few hotels. A specially appointed commission in Luhansk is supposed to determine whether an apartment is actually "owner-less." The owners are then to be given deadlines to make a claim on their property.
In reality, though, there is nothing that Ukrainians who have fled can do to legally protect their property.’

(…)

‘After 2014, it was still possible for Ukrainians to carry out real estate transactions in the occupied "People's Republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk, the notary explains. But she says things have been different since the annexation in violation of international law. "This subject is painful for everyone," Syerova admits. She says the only thing she can do is inform people of the legal situation. In the end, she says, everyone has to decide for themselves. If people need money, she says, then they sell according to Russian law. And it's a risky business. It's possible that even sellers could be held legally liable in the future. "Ukraine will never recognize these contracts," she says.’

Read the article here.

Ethnic cleansing, or maybe just cleansing, by nationalization by forced sale.

The annexation is well under way, but the war in Ukraine ceased to be sexy.

And a war that is petering out can still go on for a decade or so.