Russia is launching a new initiative to map occupied Ukrainian territories, aiming to consolidate control over the seized lands and create a legal basis for the expropriation of Ukrainian property. The Russian Ministry of Agriculture has announced a tender worth approximately $4.89 million to create a unified map of agricultural lands. The order was posted on the “Goszakupki” procurement platform.
The project is aimed at formalizing the annexation, in particular through the administrative integration of the occupied regions into Russia’s cadastral accounting system. At the same time, the public registers of Rosreestr still do not reflect these territories, and new cadastral districts for them have not yet been created.
The documentation calls for the use of data up to 2002 — before the start of land reform in Ukraine. Contemporary information is considered “undesirable” due to changes in ownership structure and parcel boundaries. The Kremlin openly ignores Ukrainian legislation, using manipulative statistics to justify the export of grain and other resources.
This initiative is another step toward legitimizing the occupation and an attempt to give the criminal actions a pseudo-legal form.
