Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the country after the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013-2014, has disclosed some more details of his private life to Western media.
Yanukovych, 66, said in an interview with German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel that he had separated from his wife of 45 years, Lyudmyla Yanukovych, and now lives with Lyubov Polezhay, 42, in Russia.
While it had been known for several years that Yanukovych had lived with Polezhay while being married, Yanukovych admitted that he was in a relationship with Polezhay for the first time in the interview to Der Spiegel.
Polezhay is the sister of Yanukovych’s former cook. She was born in the same city as Yanukovych – Yenakiyeve in Donetsk Oblast, which is located some 740 kilometers from Kyiv. Polezhay formerly owned the Crystal Spa salon in Kyiv’s Obolon district, and the “Road of the Future” charity fund.
After Yanukovych bolted from his luxurious Mezhyhirya mansion late in February 2014, journalists found evidence showing that the disgraced president had lived there with Polezhay. Polezhay’s daughter, now 15, lived at the residence too.
At the same time, Lyudmyla Yanukovych was living in Donetsk and remained out of the public eye. Lyudmyla, known to be religious and a ballet lover, met Yanukovych in 1969 and married him three years later.
The year after they met, Yanukovych was imprisoned for assault, and spent two years in jail. The couple married on his release from jail.
Lyudmyla’s uncle, Oleksandr Sazhyn, was a judge in a local court in Yenakiyeve. In 1973, the same court erased Yanukovych’s criminal records.
According to various media reports, Yanukovych’s ex-wife now lives in Crimea, where her youngest son, Viktor Yanukovych Jr., who drowned in Lake Baikal in March 2015, is buried.
Yanukovych also told Der Spiegel that his older son, Oleksandr, supports him financially. Both Yanukovych and his son are not on the Interpol wanted list, but are wanted by the Ukrainian authorities.
However, three years after the Euromaidan killings on Feb. 20, 2014, the case against Yanukovych still hasn’t been sent to court and no assets allegedly stolen by Yanukovych and his allies have been recovered.
The Polish edition of news magazine Newsweek reported in December 2015 that Yanukovych and Polezhay lived in a luxurious house in an elite suburban district of Moscow, Rublyovka, where Russia’s most influential and richest people have their homes.
