In the occupied part of Kherson region, the authorities have proposed providing state and municipal land plots to participants in the war against Ukraine, as well as to members of their families. The corresponding draft law was prepared by the State Legal Directorate of the presidential administration, and a copy of this document is in the possession of Novaya-Yevropa.
The initiative provides for the free allocation of land to military personnel, volunteers, and employees of security agencies who took part in the war in Ukraine, as well as to the families of those killed.
The plots are planned to be issued once, either as property or as a lease, depending on the recipient category. The land may be used for housing construction, private subsidiary farming, horticulture, and vegetable gardening.
The document indicates that priority rights to receive plots will be given to the wounded, decorated servicemen, and other categories of combat participants. If a serviceman has died, this right passes to members of his family.
Registration in the occupied region will be required to obtain land. The plots will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
An explanatory note to the draft law, which is also available to Novaya-Yevropa, states that the initiative is intended to support participants in the "special military operation" and security personnel during the "transitional period." At the same time, the document does not disclose what exactly is meant by this period.
On March 5, a group of deputies from A Just Russia, together with faction leader Sergei Mironov, submitted to the State Duma a draft law proposing amendments to Article 39.5 of the Russian Federation Land Code. It proposes providing participants in the war in Ukraine, volunteers, security personnel, and their families with plots that are in state or municipal ownership free of charge. In addition, applicants will be able to receive monetary compensation instead of land.
As stated in the document, these citizens may also not be registered as needing residential premises. In essence, the initiative creates a separate basis for them to receive land without additional conditions.
The document does not specify in which regions such plots will be provided. Consideration of the draft law in its first reading is scheduled for April 14.
Current legislation already provides for the possibility of free land allocation, but this practice is not universal. The Land Code gives regions the right to independently determine who may count on plots and under what conditions, so in practice additional requirements usually apply, such as the need to be officially recognized as needing housing. Recipients may include large families, combat veterans, and other categories of citizens.
The A Just Russia draft law proposes making this measure more general and accessible: expanding the circle of recipients to include participants in the war in Ukraine and their families, abolishing the requirement of need, and adding the option of monetary compensation instead of a plot. It is effectively an attempt to turn land allocation from a regional support measure into a simpler mechanism.
Attempts to provide land to Russian military personnel in the occupied territories have already been made. Thus, in the autumn of 2025, the "authorities" of Zaporizhzhia region reported that they had adopted the relevant document.
Thus, such decisions are already being made at the regional level. The draft law submitted to the State Duma can probably be regarded as an attempt to formalize this practice at the federal level and extend it to other territories.
Information on state and municipal ownership in the occupied part of Kherson region is not publicly available. As Novaya-Yevropa confirmed, on Russia's cadastral map this territory is displayed as part of Ukraine.
The official Ukrainian cadastral map contains data current as of the period before February 24, 2022. At the same time, information on state and municipal ownership in regions bordering Russia is hidden. Also, as Novaya-Yevropa verified, the map contains no information about properties in Kherson region.
According to the pro-Russian authorities, after the occupation began, "several thousand" ownerless land plots appeared in the region, plots abandoned by Ukrainians because of the fighting. These properties began to be used to address the "housing issue": teachers, doctors, and utility workers who came to work in Kherson region are being settled there.
In late March and early April, the authorities of occupied Kherson region adopted a law on the provision of housing that had shown signs of being ownerless. Its difference from the draft law on allocating plots to war participants is that it regulates the redistribution of existing real estate. In this case, apartments and houses declared ownerless pass into the ownership of the region, after which they are transferred to other citizens.