The KDoc format uses Markdown syntax instead of HTML, and basic Markdown does not provide a way to break the line without starting a new paragraph.
I’m not sure why the Kotlin IntellIJ plugin does not support <br/> or the double space hack.
If starting a new paragraph is OK, just skip an empty line:
/**
* retrieve a state of the service
*
* HTTP code 200 - normal state
*
* HTTP code 403 - some recoverable state:
*/
The result is:
