Since India, Thailand and Mexico shut down their commercial surrogacy industries, Ukraine has become the go-to spot for couples in the US and elsewhere. Some couples question agency practices there while lawyers, activists and feminists argue that surrogacy there exploits women.
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.