Kiev

The the main club house inside Mezhgorye, the residence of Ukraine's ousted president Victor Yanukovych.

Ukrainians vowed to turn their ex-president’s estate into a ‘Museum of Corruption.’ But it’s something else now.

Conflict

Ukraine’s former president Victor Yanukovych spent more that $30 million on his personal estate before he fled for Russia. Think private zoo, crocodile skin-lined planters and a copy of John and Yoko’s white piano.

Alina Simone's father, Alexander Vilenkin, at the Kharkov Zoo in 2011.  Vilenkin worked there as a night watchman after he was blacklisted by the KGB in Soviet Ukraine.

This Soviet-born émigré remembers working at the Kharkov zoo

Conflict & Justice
Alina Simone's father, Alexander Vilenkin, at the Kharkov Zoo in 2011.  Vilenkin worked there as a night watchman after he was blacklisted by the KGB in Soviet Ukraine.

This Soviet-born émigré remembers working at the Kharkov zoo

Conflict & Justice