International- Russia is selling President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's apartment in Crimea to fund its war in Ukraine.
- Zelenskyy and his wife bought the luxury, 3-bed coastal penthouse apartment in 2013.
Russia is selling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's luxury penthouse apartment in Crimea — and the money will go towards funding its ongoing war in Ukraine.
The sale was announced Wednesday, according to Russian state media agency TASS.
Crimean State Council officials — who were installed by the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014 — voted to nationalize Zelenskyy's apartment and sell it.
"Of course, it's not a big loss for him," said Vladimir Konstantinov, the legislature's speaker, according to TASS.
In a video message released on Thursday, Kremlin-backed Crimean governor Sergey Aksyonov announced the sale along with the decision to nationalize almost 60 other properties belonging to Ukrainian public figures, The Telegraph reported.
"Enemies of Russia won't be making money in Russian Crimea," Aksyonov said.
The sale of Zelenskyy's apartment will go towards funding Russia's war in Ukraine — or "special military operation," as Russian media and officials have repeatedly referred to it.
TASS reported the sale will go towards "financing the special military operation as well as providing aid to the families of the servicemen that were killed in action and the families of the servicemen that were called up as part of a partial military mobilization."
Konstantinov confirmed this, The Telegraph said.
Zelenskyy and his wife Olena Zelenska bought the luxury 3-bed penthouse apartment in 2013. It's located in the Emperor's House residential complex in the Black Sea coastal resort town of Yalta, Reuters reported.
The two never got to live there due to renovations and the 2014 illegal annexation, The Telegraph said.
Russian media estimated the apartment to be worth about $800,000.