Russia Auctions Off Crimean Apartment Belonging to Zelensky

Russian authorities have auctioned off an apartment in Crimea that once belonged to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to a report from Russian state-owned news outlet RIA Novosti, the Ministry of Property and Land Relations of Crimea said that the apartment, in the village of Livadia along the Black Sea, was sold at auction for 44.3 million rubles, or $478,634. The press service for the department told the outlet that two people participated in the auction held on Monday. The property, which totals around 1,286 square feet, originally sold for 24.6 million rubles, or $265,787.

Vladimir Konstantinov, speaker of the Crimea parliament, told RIA Novosti that the funds from the apartment, which was registered under the name Olena Zelensky, wife of the Ukrainian president, would go toward Russia's war against Ukraine, as well as the "development" of Crimea, read the report.

Newsweek was unable to independently verify this information. An email was sent to Russia's Foreign Ministry and Zelensky's press office for comment Monday.

In May, Kremlin-appointed Crimea leader Sergey Aksyonov said that the territory would begin the nationalization of several properties belonging to Ukrainian public figures, including the Zelenskys' apartment, reported The Telegraph. The property was bought by Zelensky in 2013, but the Ukrainian leader, who was one of the country's most popular comedians at the time, never got to live in the three-room apartment because of renovations, read the report. Russia eventually annexed the Crimean Peninsula in February 2014.

"Enemies of Russia won't be making money in Russian Crimea," Aksyonov said in May.

In September, Konstantinov said that Zelensky's apartment would be offered to the new owner as a chance to organize a "museum of the fight against Nazism," reported Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Russia has repeatedly justified its invasion of Ukraine as a way to liberate Ukrainians from so-called widespread "Nazism." Zelensky is Jewish.

The Ukrainian president has stated that the war in his nation, which recently entered its 21st month, will not end until Crimea is returned to Kyiv's control. Since launching its counteroffensive in early June, the Black Sea peninsula has been bombarded by Ukrainian drone attacks and explosions.

After months of incremental gains, however, some worry that Ukraine is out of time to recover Russian-held territory in the south and eastern parts of its country as winter weather starts to settle in. Major Viktor Tregubov, a Ukrainian fighter currently serving in Kyiv's armed forces in the eastern Donetsk region, previously told Newsweek that the war has turned into a "survival of the fittest, those who can adapt themselves to the new conditions."