Russian authorities have expropriated and sold an apartment belonging to Ukrainian President Zelenskyj’s family in Crimea. According to TASS, the apartment fetched 440,000 euros at auction.
According to a media report, an apartment belonging to the family of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has been auctioned off on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula. According to the Russian state agency TASS, the property reached a price of 44.3 million rubles, the equivalent of 440,000 euros, at auction. This sum is around 200,000 euros above the starting price. There were only two bidders in total.
Apartment expropriated this year
The approximately 120 square meter apartment is located in an apartment complex in the health resort of Yalta. It was nationalized by the Russian authorities this year. Officially, the apartment belonged to Zelensky’s wife, Olena Zelenska.
According to TASS, it is a three-room apartment with a balcony overlooking the Black Sea and Livadia Palace, the summer residence of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II and site of the 1945 Yalta Conference.
Selenska bought the property in Crimea in 2013, around a year before Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula in violation of international law. At that time, Volodymyr Zelenskyj still earned his money as an actor and cabaret artist.
The basis for the auction of the apartment was a law that the Russian occupiers had passed. The Crimean parliament, which lacked democratic legitimacy, approved this without a dissenting vote.
Buyer from Moscow
The buyer is said to be an entrepreneur from Moscow. According to TASS, she deals in real estate. She told the Mash news portal that she bought the apartment because of the good location and the climate. According to media reports, part of the income could flow into the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.