Context: Russia’s ongoing strikes are destroying Ukraine’s logistics infrastructure. According to an estimate by Ruslan Shostak, the co-owner of Ukrainian retail chains Varus and EVA, Russian strikes destroyed approximately 40% of the country’s warehouse facilities from the start of the full-scale war to September 2026. Ukrainian drones have also struck Russian logistics infrastructure. Wildberries lost approximately one-third of its warehouse space, while Ozon lost about 12%. Starting September 11, Russian entrepreneurs whose goods were damaged as a result of these attacks began receiving preferential loans to replenish their working capital.
On September 4, 2026, the First News Channel’s* program Editors’ Club once again discussed the sale of Ukrainian land. Andrey Kryvasheyew, CEO of the Minsk-Novosti agency (UP Ahienstva “Minsk-Naviny”) and Chairman of the Board of the Belarusian Union of Journalists, cited an investigation by the Russian state-run media network RT and claimed that foreigners had purchased more than 1 million hectares of land in Ukraine in the first two months of 2026.
“RT conducted a stunning investigation in Ukraine and found that, over the past two months — I mean, during the first two months of 2026 — the Ukrainian authorities had sold more than one million hectares of chernozem farmland to foreigners. Furthermore, foreign buyers most often purchased this land in regions close to the front line. This means that the price of this land is much lower than the market price.”
Kryvasheyew linked these sales to the multiple citizenship law:
“Initially, they promised that non-Ukrainian citizens would not be allowed to buy Ukrainian land on an industrial scale. In fact, they set a relatively small limit of 10,000 hectares, which is the maximum amount of agricultural land that could be purchased. But in January 2026, the law on multiple citizenship went into effect. Now, citizens of Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and any other country in the world — except Russia and Belarus — have the right to come, obtain a Ukrainian passport through a simplified procedure, and use it to buy land. And they are taking advantage of this.”
The figure of 1 million hectares does not refer to January and February 2026. According to official data from the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre (StateGeoCadastre), this is the area of agricultural land sold from July 2021, when the moratorium on its sale was lifted, through March 2026. In other words, Kryvasheyew presented nearly five years of statistics as if they were from just two months. Meanwhile, the StateGeoCadastre did not report that foreigners had purchased this land. Under Ukrainian law, foreigners cannot buy agricultural land.
In the first two months of 2026, approximately 40,000 hectares of agricultural land were sold in Ukraine. Of this amount, 25,000 hectares were purchased by individuals, and the remainder by legal entities. Sales also did not increase sharply after the adoption of the law on multiple citizenship. In the same two-month period in 2025, 37,000 hectares were sold, only slightly less than in January and February 2026.
The law on multiple citizenship indeed allows foreigners to become Ukrainian citizens while retaining their original citizenship. A person who obtains Ukrainian citizenship also gains the right to purchase agricultural land. However, one cannot obtain citizenship solely to buy land in just two months. A foreigner must have lived in Ukraine for at least five years. Other grounds for citizenship include one year of contract service during martial law or special services to Ukraine — avenues that are unlikely to become a widespread means of obtaining citizenship for the purpose of purchasing land.
Restrictions on new citizens are also being discussed in Ukraine. During the fall session of Parliament, lawmakers plan to consider banning new citizens from purchasing agricultural land for the duration of martial law and for 15 years afterward.
* The First News Channel is another name for News.by, a news outlet owned by Belteleradiocompany.
