Warsaw takes over Russia-built compound to give to Ukraine

The mayor of Warsaw says a disputed compound administered by Russia’s diplomatic mission is being taken over by the city and will be made available to the Ukrainian community

A disputed compound in the Polish capital of Warsaw administered by Russia’s diplomatic mission is being taken over by the city and will be made available to the Ukrainian community, the mayor said Monday.

Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski was at the site early Monday and said a bailiff had entered the two apparently empty, fenced buildings, nicknamed “Spyville” by Warsaw residents, to check on their condition and to mark them as seized by the city.

Trzaskowski said Warsaw was getting back the compound “unlawfully” occupied by Russia. Last month he said Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine added urgency to the decades-long procedure.

“It is very symbolic that we are closing this procedure of many years now, at the time of Russia’s aggression” against Ukraine, Trzaskowski said on Twitter.

Ukraine's ambassador, Andrii Deshchytsia, told Poland’s state news agency PAP that Ukraine will file to lease the compound, which could be used for a school or a Ukrainian culture center.

One of Trzaskowski's proposals for the 100-odd apartments there is to accommodate war refugees from Ukraine. More than 2.6 million of them have crossed into Poland since the Russian invasion began.

Russia’s Embassy, which had the tall apartment blocks built in the 1970s on land obtained from the city, has been refusing court orders to pay to lease the land or hand it over.

Once busy, the buildings became empty in the 1990s, after Poland shed its communist rule and Soviet Union's dominance in 1989, and after the Soviet Union itself dissolved in 1991.

Ever since, Poland has been saying that the contract for the lease of the plot of land had expired and demanded that it be returned. But its gates remained closed and guarded.

Russia’s diplomatic and business missions have much more property in Poland than Poland has in Russia, which is in violation of reciprocity rules, according to Poland’s Foreign Ministry.

___

Follow AP stories on developments in the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.