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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Emma Graham-Harrison in Kyiv

‘The city wants to finish off what Russia’s attacks began’: Kyiv residents fear property grab

Kyiv Tetiana Russia Vitali Klitschko
Ksenia Semenova with her right arm in a sling standing in front of a demolished building in Kyiv
Ksenia Semenova, a city council member with the task of protecting historic Kyiv, says she was alerted to an illegal demolition by opportunistic developers. Photograph: Emma Graham-Harrison/The Observer

About an hour after air raid sirens sounded in the early hours of 10 August, residents on Yaroslavska Street in the heart of Kyiv’s hip Podil district heard the crash of a building coming down.

Some looked out of their windows expecting to see the smoking remains of a Russian missile. Instead, in the dawn light, two excavators were tearing apart an elegant 200-year-old mansion.

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