Russian authorities of the temporarily occupied Crimea (Qirim) sell the apartment of Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska

The occupation authorities of Crimea have sold an apartment in temporarily occupied Yalta belonging to Olena Zelenska.

This is evidenced by the website of the Russian state system Torgi, Krym.Realii reports.

The Russians sold the property at an auction for RUB 44.3 million (approximately US $ 478, 000).

Two participants were admitted to the auction — Yulia Kalnitskaya and Olga Lipovetskaya.

Lipovetskaya, who is allegedly involved in real estate in Moscow, won the auction.

It will be recalled that in May 2023, the so-called head of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, announced the "nationalisation" of Ukrainian property on the peninsula.

At the time, some Russian media outlets quoted the speaker of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, as saying that the Zelenskyy family's apartment would be "put up for auction, and the money will go to help Russian soldiers".

In September, the Russians held eight auctions, selling "nationalised" assets of Ukrainians on the peninsula for RUB 815 million.

According to Ukrainian law, nationalisation in temporarily occupied territories is the illegal transfer of property to someone else's private ownership.

On the eve of the full-scale invasion, the Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Tamila Tasheva said that Ukraine would not recognise acts adopted in the temporarily occupied Crimea that violate human or state rights.

"These are decisions on nationalisation and confiscation of property, on the establishment of inheritance and many others," Tasheva said at the time.

The protection of private property against confiscation is a long-standing rule of customary international law already recognized in the Lieber Code, the Brussels Declaration and the Oxford Manual. The prohibition of confiscation of private property is codified in Article 46 of the Hague Regulations.