Kyiv terminates Russian embassy’s lease, demands return of diplomatic mission premises to state
Kyiv City Council has terminated the Russian embassy’s lease of the diplomatic premises in the Ukrainian capital.
According to the Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, the city has appealed to the government to return the property leased by the “Russian barbarians” to the state.
Ukraine ended its diplomatic relations with Russia shortly after the start of the Russian invasion. Two days before the Russian military’s incursion into Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced the “evacuation” of its diplomatic staff from the country. The embassy building in Kyiv has been disused since.
The 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations requires states that terminate diplomatic relations with another country to maintain that country’s property and archives on their own territory. Transfer of maintenance duties to a third state is also possible, as pointed out by RBC.
