Prague 7 suggested that abandoned flats for Russian diplomats would serve Ukrainians
“According to our information, the house at Ovenecka 39 is empty after the expulsion of diplomats and other employees since last year and could serve refugees from Ukraine. At present, both entrepreneurs and households offer accommodation capacities. So why not use the flats that lie fallow near Stromovka for families with children. It seems to us not only a functional but also a symbolic solution, “said the mayor of Prague 7, Jan Čižinský.
Prague 7 also wants the area of the Russian embassy to return to the state before August 21, 1968, and the city to restore publicly accessible greenery there. This requirement is also required by the municipality as early as April 2021. At that time, suspicion of the involvement of Russian agents in the explosions at the ammunition depot in Vrbětice in the Zlín region in 2014 became apparent.
About half a hectare of land in question is owned by the Czech Republic. During the Warsaw Pact invasion, soldiers occupied Stromovka, where they camped and used the park as a base. The area of the embassy of the Soviet Union then grew by a part of the park permanently, which did not change even after the departure of the occupying forces in 1990 – 1991. There are now five housing units on the occupied land, as shown by the aerial map.
Aerial map of the Real Estate Cadastre showing the occupied land. There are five housing units on it.
At the end of July 2021, however, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that it could not recover part of Stromovka from Russia. Specifically, after the occupation of the occupied land was in 1972, based on the decision of the Czechoslovak government, transferred to the permanent use of the USSR embassy.
According to the ministry, it was therefore not possible to meet the requirements of the municipality and the city district without violating the basic principles of international law. The decision at that time is still valid, as it was based on the decision of the Czechoslovak government. “Sedmička calls on the government to check the legal possibilities of termination or other termination of the contract on permanent free use of this land,” Čižinský wrote.