Ukrainian Ambassador to Britain Vadim Pristayko said that Ukraine hopes to return "at least a third" of the property of the USSR abroad, including in Britain, which after the collapse of the Union passed to Russia without compensation, and is now studying whether such a claim will have a chance of success.
He told this in an interview with "The Public."
Vadim Pristayko noted that it is about the diplomatic property of the former Soviet Union. Russia then offered the other republics to take care of the debt problems, but also to take all the property of the USSR abroad as its property. According to Pristayko, Ukraine initially agreed to this, but the parliament never gave its consent. Ukraine, as one of the republics that made the greatest contribution to all the assets of the USSR, demanded to be shown what assets were in question, but this explanation - where such assets were located and what their approximate value was - was not provided by Russia.
Ukraine was the only state of the former Soviet Union to challenge Russia's ownership of former Soviet property back in 1999 in Britain. Ambassador Vladimir Vasilenko asked the British government to recognize Ukraine's "beneficial interest" in the properties.
"We demand that Russia return at least a third of what is abroad," the ambassador said.
According to him, the Ukrainian side is now studying the legal details of the issue with the help of legal companies.
"We have found all the information about these houses, their real value, the status, why the rights passed from the Soviet Union to Russia, what legal tools can be used to restore justice... If we come out that this claim has a legal prospect, this claim will be from the state of Ukraine," - said Vadim Pristayko.
In early July the Times reported that Ukraine was preparing to sue Russia for restitution of 18 buildings inherited by Moscow from the Soviet Union - in particular Sycox Heath estate in England, allegedly used by Russian diplomats and the FSB as a vacation place.
Russia considers Ukraine's claims to its property in London groundless.