MOSCOW, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Adhering to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, Russia preserves the integrity of the Ukrainian embassy building in Moscow following the termination of the land lease agreement, a senior Russian diplomat said on Monday.
Alexey Polishchuk, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Second CIS Department, said that the Moscow city government has concluded the lease for the land housing the Ukrainian embassy in response to the Kiev City Council's earlier decision to end the land lease for the Russian embassy in Ukraine.
"The termination of the land lease does not affect the inviolability of the embassy building itself, which remains the property of the Ukrainian state," said Polishchuk.
"According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, even in the event of an armed conflict, the host state must respect and protect the premises of the representation along with its property and archives." he added.
On Feb. 10, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the Moscow City Property Department decided to terminate the lease agreements for the land plots allocated for the Ukrainian Embassy. ■
