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Kiev city authorities sever land lease contract with Russian embassy — mayor

At the beginning of April, the pro-presidential Servant of the People party called for annulling the lease of the land where the embassy building was located

MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. The Kiev City Council on Thursday terminated the lease agreement for the plot of land where the Russian embassy is located and called on the Ukrainian government to confiscate the building, Kiev’s mayor, Vitaly Klitschko, has said.

"Today, the Kiev Council terminated the land lease agreement with the Russian embassy and also urged the Cabinet of Ministers to return the property of the ‘diplomatic office’ to the ownership of the Ukrainian state," Klitschko wrote on his Telegram channel.

According to the Ukrainian weekly Zerkalo nedeli (Mirror of the Week), 73 members of the 120-seat City Council voted for the decision.

At the beginning of April, the pro-presidential Servant of the People party called for annulling the lease of the land where the embassy building was located. It also suggested that the Ukrainian government should nationalize the building of the embassy.

On February 22 last year, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the evacuation of foreign missions’ personnel from Ukraine for safety reasons. On the morning of February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that in response to an appeal from the leaders of the Donbass republics he had decided to conduct a special military operation in Ukraine. Later that day, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky announced the severing of diplomatic relations with Russia. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced the evacuation of its diplomats. Since then, the buildings of the embassies of Ukraine in Moscow and of Russia in Kiev have been empty.

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