The Ukrainian government has its own compensation scheme for people who have been displaced by the conflict, which includes those whose homes have been seized. But some of the Ukrainians who spoke to BBC Verify said they had struggled to find new housing within a slow-moving system aimed at relocating millions of people who have had to flee their homes.
Myla, whose full name we are not revealing for safety reasons, is originally from Mariupol but now lives elsewhere in Europe. She submitted evidence to the Ukrainian government showing damage to her flat but said she has heard nothing from the authorities. She said that while some wealthy Ukrainian donors have separately provided compensation to a number of wounded fighters her family does not qualify for this.
“I’ve realised that – probably – no-one will compensate me with anything,” Myla said. “We are not homeless. We are people who want to live in Ukraine, rebuild it and everything else, but we have nowhere to return to.”
Ivanna is unsure what the current status of her home is. But, living thousands of miles from Ukraine, she fears that there is little hope she will see it again.
“I do not believe that if they do take the house… under the conditions we are living in now, it will be possible to get it back,” she said, resigned to the reality that unless Ukraine can retake vast swathes of Russian-captured territory, her childhood home is all but lost.
Meanwhile, Ivashchuk is also unsure who now lives in his home. He said he felt conflicted about his experience of losing his home. As a Christian, he said, it was important that he could forgive the man who claimed his house and evicted his friend.
But he also questioned the desire of someone “to improve one’s own condition at the expense of another person”, which he described as “lawlessness”.
“For me, as a believer, it’s a sin.”