Russia threatens Ukraine with countermeasures for severing agreement on rent of land in Kyiv for building diplomatic premises
MOSCOW. June 4 (Interfax) - Russia has forwarded a note to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to express its disagreement with the Kyiv City Council's decision to sever rent agreements for plots of land in Kyiv earlier allotted for constructing the Russian embassy's residential building, garage, consular office, and the ambassador's residence, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
"In violating commonly accepted norms of diplomatic conduct, the Ukrainian side should bear in mind the principle of reciprocity, which lies in the foundation of interrelations between civilized countries. In the face of Kyiv's unfriendly actions, Russia reserves the right to take proper measures in response," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement titled 'On Ukraine's Unfriendly Actions' on Thursday.
The Kyiv city administration notified the Russian embassy to Ukraine on May 27 that the Kyiv City Council "decided to sever rent agreements for three plots of land located in Kyiv, which were allotted for constructing a residential building, a garage, consular department premises, and the ambassador's residence," the ministry said.
These rent agreements were concluded in 1999 in pursuance of a November 19, 1998 agreement between the Russian and Ukrainian governments on terms and conditions of accommodating and servicing the diplomatic missions of the Russian Federation to Ukraine and Ukraine to the Russian Federation, with respect to which Ukraine reaffirmed that "each effective treaty is binding for its signatories and should be implemented in good faith," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"We immediately forwarded a note to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, in which we expressed our disagreement with the Kyiv City Council's decisions and urged the Ukrainian side to officially assess them," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
On March 12, 2020, the Kyiv City Council supported draft resolutions on severing 49-year rent agreements concluded back in 1998 for three plots of land for building new premises of the Russian embassy, consular office, and the ambassador's residence in the center of Kyiv, which have still not been built over this time. The decisions to annul the relevant rent agreements were supported by 63, 72, and 61 lawmakers respectively.
Yuriy Syrotiuk, the chair of the Svoboda faction at the Kyiv City Council, a co-author of the draft resolution, said the relevant plots of land are located at 13-15 Spasska Street, 14 Spasska Street, and 17-21 Borychiv Tok Street in Kyiv's historical neighborhood of Podil.
"They are no longer there. And I hope they will never be. Thank the deputies of the fighting Ukraine's capital for supporting this decision," Syrotiuk said on his Facebook account.
The Kyiv City Council's standing commission for urban planning, architecture, and land use agreed on February 7, 2017 to annul the rent agreements for the three plots of land earlier rented to the Russian embassy for one hryvnia a year. The plots of land were 0.197 hectares, 0.3634 hectares, and 0.3771 hectares in size.
"In line with the draft resolutions, the legal grounds for annulling the rent agreements are the inappropriate use of the plots of land and failure to implement the terms of the agreements," the Kyiv City Council press service said at the time.
The report said the draft resolutions had to be considered at a plenary session of the Kyiv City Council. "After the plots of land are returned to communal ownership, the deputies will propose arranging parks there," the press service said.