Presidential election Ukraine
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When Olga Belcharojewa calls her address, it is a place that people in Ukraine call the "Museum of Corruption": Mesheyria.
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych set up a luxury dacha, pavilions with marble columns, waterfalls, saunas, greenhouses, a zoo with parrots and ostriches, golf and tennis courts, and a marina and heliport on the 137-acre site in northern Kyiv. It is a place that stands for the excessive self-enrichment of the head of state and his family clan.
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Olga Belcharojewa, today tourist guide
UKRAINE BEFORE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Five years ago, hundreds of thousands demonstrated in Ukraine first for their country's Western European course, then against the corrupt government. The Maidan brought freedom to the country, but took peace. Ukraine is in constant conflict with its neighbor Russia, which annexed the Crimea and is leading in the Donbass war. At the end of March Ukrainians elect a new president - encounters in a torn country.
Olga, 47 years, reports calmly and soberly about the decadent extras, which allowed the ex-president for many millions of euros at government expense. It points to the heated ponds, where even at minus temperatures swim ducks; the mosaic plunge pool, which architects have embedded in the floor of the wood-carved sauna house; the mighty Roman-style columns built next to the wooden dacha on top of the hill.
It is foggy on this February day. When Olga looks at the Dnipro, she pulls the corners of her mouth. She tells how important Yanukovych was to have a clear view of the water. "He had special specialists come with helicopters, which cut off the trees from the air."
The luxury residence Meschyhirja
Olga Belcharojewa, an internally displaced person from Donetsk, is today the tour guide in Meschyhirja, the residence of Ukrainian ex-president Viktor Yanukovych. The luxury dacha is made of wood, measuring 600 square meters.
Meschyhirja is a luxury complex that stands for the excessive self-enrichment of the head of state and his family clan. In the roof of the sauna house of the residence extra colored glass mosaics were embedded.
In the bathrooms there are golden taps.
However, she has not seen any golden toilet bowls rumored about, says Olga. They are still sold today as souvenirs, such as golden loaves of bread, which allegedly also existed in Yanukovych.
Hundreds of animals still live in Meshehyrja.
View into the interior of the luxury dacha of Yanukovych taken in 2014 through a window.
Thousands of people flocked to the grounds 25 kilometers north of Kiev after the President's flight five years ago.
Souvenir photos with the Ukrainian banner. Meschyhirja embodied like no other place the hated state power.
Members of the paramilitary Maidan Guard control the site to protect it from looting and secure documents.
For more than four years, Olga has been guiding visitors through the property's mighty gold-plated gate. It was her idea to talk to other women about this place, which for them is much more than Yanukovych.
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Gate in Meshhyrja
The Muslim woman married to a Chechen comes from Donetsk. There in the region also the former head of state was born. To this day, pro-Russian fighters keep them occupied, shells still hit people. From international headlines, however, the war in Ukraine has almost disappeared.
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According to the German Red Cross, 2.8 million people fled the war: a part to Russia, where Yanukovych lives. He fled after the end of the Maidan with dozens of dead in the night of 21 February 2014 from Kiev; 1.6 million people now live as internally displaced people in other parts of Ukraine.
How she would decide was clear to Olga from the start. She herself saw how from the direction of Russia in the spring of 2014 came first men in civilian, later mercenaries in green uniforms without badges with weapons and heavy equipment in the region. Tanks drove with Russian flags through the city.
Flags were changed several times a day at the administrative buildings in the region. At times the Ukrainian flag, sometimes that of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said: "Everything depended on who called, who was afraid of whom." "Painful" she calls these memories.
AP / dpa
Airport in Donetsk in October 2014
At some point was then shot, the impacts were heard to the center, where the family owns a house. At the airport, Ukrainian soldiers and pro-Russian fighters fought fierce battles. On July 13, Olga and several relatives packed their belongings into the car and left the city.
It was a coincidence that Olga came to Meschyhirya with her husband and two children. A relative had come here. Olga also sought refuge in the paramilitary Maidan guard guarding the residence. Since then, the family lives on the first floor of a simple outbuilding, which was probably built for security guards on the site. From the hallway are rooms with small kitchen and bathroom. 20 families, all internally displaced, live in the house.
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Olga
Olga has no hope of being able to return home soon . Friendly neighbors take care of the family home, but other neighbors have already appropriated a piece of their property, she says. The usually controlled woman sounds bitter the first time.
Olga misses the city life, in Donetsk she led a construction company. If she wants to bring her seven-year-old son to school or to play sports, she has to drive five kilometers.
She received no support from the state, local volunteers supplied her with essentials, cutlery, crockery, a refrigerator and winter clothes, and at the beginning also food and medicines. President Petro Poroshenko had actually announced to end the war in Donbass - a promise he could not keep, for which he apologized.
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Olga in front of the home for internally displaced persons
Olga will re-elect him on March 31st. The comedian Wladymyr Selensky, who leads in polls, considers her a good actor, "but nothing more". Poroshenko leads Ukraine to the west, away from Russia. For Olga, that's the way to go - "it's moving forward, slowly, but moving forward," she says. Poroshenko modernized the army, started the fight against corruption - "all this takes time".
From the Maidan to the Crimea annexation
February 20, 2014, Kiev
Snipers open fire on pro-European demonstrators in the center of Kiev, killing 47 people. Anyone who has fired the deadly shots is not clear until today. A total of nearly 80 people will be killed in the Ukrainian capital from 18 to 21 February.
February 21, 2014, Kiev
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland negotiate a treaty to settle the conflict. Pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych rushes to Kharkov in the night and heads to Donetsk and from there to the Crimean peninsula. Due to the flight, the parliament declares on February 22, 2014 Yanukovych for depreciated.
February 23, 2014, Moscow
After the loss of power by Yankovych, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructs the heads of security services to prepare for the "return of Crimea to Russia" in order to give residents the opportunity to decide their own fate. " Putin tells this a year later in a television documentary on Russian state television.
February 26, 2014, Simferopol / Crimea
There are violent clashes between Proukrainian Crimean Tatars and pro-Russian demonstrators in front of the parliament building in Simferopol. Thousands gather because there are rumors that MEPs could speak at the special session on the independence of Crimea from Ukraine.
February 27, 2014, Crimea
For the first time, reports will be made directly on the deployment of Russian soldiers in the Crimea. The Simferopol parliament is staffed by gunmen wearing green uniforms and without insignia. The group of "green males", who call themselves the "self-defender" of the Russian-speaking population, raise a Russian flag on the roof of Parliament.
February 28, 2014, Crimea
Armed forces in uniforms without national identifications take control of two airports on the Black Sea peninsula. According to Ukrainian sources, 2,000 Russian soldiers land at an air base in Crimea. In the coming days, there will be a change of power in the Crimea in the presence of the armed forces: the new government there, like Russia, does not recognize the Transitional Government of Ukraine.
March 16, 2014, Crimea
In a referendum illegal under Ukrainian law, the status of Crimea is decided. According to the Ukrainian Constitution, any question concerning a change in the borders of Ukraine can only be answered in a nationwide referendum. According to officially published results, 96.77 percent of participants are in favor of Crimea accession to the Russian Federation. The turnout is 83.1 percent, they say. Human rights defenders and journalists report irregularities in voting backed by gunmen. The EU and the US talk about electoral manipulation and announce new sanctions against Russia a day later.
March 18, 2014, Moscow
Putin signed with the Prime Minister of the Crimea, Sergei Axyonov, in the Kremlin the Treaty on the accession of the Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as the 84th and 85th Federation subject in the Russian state association. A little later, the Treaty is ratified by the Russian Parliament. Ukraine, the EU and the US do not accept accession, they continue to regard Crimea as Ukrainian territory.
Olga would like to stay in Meschyhirja. "As long as the Ukrainian authorities are not back in Donbass, the way is blocked for us." It is known that she is openly proukrainisch, "that means mortal danger".
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Entrance to the dormitory for internally displaced persons
How long the family can stay in Mesheyria is unclear. The site is under the authority of an authority that manages assets obtained through corruption. Currently, an administrator for the property is searched by tender. But only the maintenance costs one million euros annually, the procedure was extended.
Meschyhirja counts 600,000 visitors a year, Olga would wish for more. After Yanukovych's escape, thousands of curious people surfed the grounds every day, and interest has eased. The place is much more than just a collection of extravagances by Yanukovych, says Olga.
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SPIEGEL ONLINE correspondent Christina Hebel in conversation with Olga Belcharoewa
She points to a green poster. A monastery can be seen there, Meschyhirja was once the seat of the Orthodox Church, the site was under the protection of the Cossacks stood. "Yanukovych was only eleven years here, but this is a place of long Ukrainian history, which we should honor."