Russia has said Volodymyr Zelensky’s holiday home in Crimea has been nationalised and will be sold off to help finance the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia-installed leader of Crimea, illegally annexed in 2014, announced local legislature’s decision to nationalise 57 properties belonging to Ukrainian tycoons, public figures and foreign nationals.
Referring to the president’s flat, in his wife’s name, Sergey Aksyonov said: ‘Crimea will regain rights for a number of properties including a building in Simferopol that belongs to the banned Crimean Tatar parliament as well as Olena Zelenska’s flat.
‘Enemies of Russia won’t be making money in Russian Crimea.’
Before being elected Ukraine’s president in 2019, Zelensky was the country’s most popular comedian and also co-owned a successful television production company.
He and his wife purchased the apartment in Livadia back in 2013 but never got to live there due to ongoing works and the annexation, The Telegraph reports.
According to Russian state-controlled media, the ‘three-bedroom penthouse’ is worth an estimated £647,000 ($800,000).
The chairman of the State Council of Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov, said: ‘Of course, it’s not a big loss for him (Zelensky).’
Proceeds will also go to the families of servicemen killed in action and those of men called up as part of a partial military mobilisation, state news agency TASS reported.
It reported that about 700 properties have been nationalised since last autumn, including assets belonging to Ukrainian politicians Serhiy Taruta and Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and Ukrainian billionaire businessmen Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Rinat Akhmetov.
Both TASS and other Russian state-controlled media have been cited as sources of disinformation as part of Russian influence operations.
