When Victor Yanukovych fled his residence on Feb. 22, he tried to destroy something precious before escaping. Some 200 folders of documents were dumped in the lake, containing precious evidence of corruption, his lavish lifestyle and excesses. But the drowning operation did not go as smoothly as he had hoped for.
Some documents were accidentally spotted flowing on the surface by journalists who came to the estate that day. They called in divers, and that’s how the rescue started.
For more than a week, a groups of journalists and many volunteers dried, photographed and scanned those documents. This is how YanukovychLeaks project started. The documentary, created in support of MezhyhiryaFest, a festival of investigative journalism and online activism, tells the story.
A new documentary “Newsroom Mezhyhirya: The story of YanukovychLeaks” has been released.
On Feb. 22, volunteer divers found nearly 200 folders of documents at a lake at the residence of former president of Ukraine. They had been thrown in the lake to destroy them as people were escaping the compound.
