KIEV, May 24 - The "chestnut scandal" has become international, with the Kiev City State Administration saying the Italian side was to blame for the substitution of chestnut seedlings planted on Khreschatyk this spring.

"It has already been determined that the substitution did not happen in Ukraine. We will go to the Italian embassy and will file a lawsuit. We are ready to prove that the Italians are guilty," Oleksandr Mazurchak, advisor to the Kiev City State Administration head.