Home by home, Russia is selling occupied Ukraine to Russians

In a brochure, the property developer touts the "majestic style" of the building's architecture and its prime location just a 15-minute walk from the sea, adding a caveat: It was damaged during "military events."

- Isabel Coles & levgeniia Sivorka

The building that once stood there was in fact demolished by developers after Russia conquered Mariupol in a brutal onslaught that killed thousands of people and devastated the Ukrainian port city's housing stock.

Residents of the Clock House counted themselves lucky to survive, but are now excluded from the redevelopment of the building, which has been sold largely to newcomers from Russia.

"We, the previous owners, don't have the right to be there," said Elena Pudak, whose mother owned a spacious apartment in the building but now lives in Germany.

Once a landmark of Mariupol's unique heritage, the Clock House now stands as a monument to Russia's transformation of the city for both profit and its own political designs. Across occupied territory, Russia-backed authorities have seized thousands of apartments after declaring them "ownerless," leaving the Ukrainians who fled faced with growing barriers to return and prove their ownership or claim compensation.

Newcomers from Russia, meanwhile, enjoy a range of perks, such as 2% mortgage rates on new building developments.

The strategy of replacing the people who once lived in conquered territories with ethnic Russians is one that Moscow has long pursued. The eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, for example, was flooded with Russians in the 1930s as the Soviet Union industrialized the region while starving millions of Ukrainian peasants to death in what the Ukrainian government and many historians consider a genocide.

Mariupol is a symbol of Russian brutality and Ukrainian resistance during a siege in the early weeks of the war that destroyed swaths of the city, including the smoke-billowing Azovstal steel works. Real-estate agents tout the city's newly-clean air.