Mayor says Warsaw has seized Russian compound

The mayor of Warsaw says a disputed compound administered by Russia's diplomatic mission is being taken over by the city and will be made available to the Ukrainian community.

Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski was at the site Monday and said that a bailiff had entered the two apparently empty buildings, dubbed "spyville" by Warsaw residents, to check their condition and to mark them as seized by the Town Hall.

"It is very symbolic that we are closing this procedure of many years now, at the time of Russia's aggression" on Ukraine, Trzaskowski said on Twitter.

Russia's Embassy, which had the tall apartment blocks built in the 1970s, has been refusing court orders to pay lease or to hand it over. Once busy, the buildings became empty in the 1990s, after Poland shed its communist rule and dependence from Moscow and after the Soviet Union dissolved.

Ever since, Poland has been saying that lease on the plot of land had expired and demanded it be returned.