Their revolution had opened up a path to a better future, they said, and now Ukrainians were throwing open the gates on the old, closed world of Viktor Yanukovich, their former president.
“Where’s the toilet? I want to see the golden toilet!” one man said, laughing, as he walked with thousands of compatriots into a 140-hectare estate near Kiev that served as a symbol of the corruption, secrecy and inequality that blights their country.
Yanukovich was said to have installed a solid gold lavatory in this huge villa by the River Dnieper; when protesters tore down a Kiev statue of Vladimir Lenin in December, they placed a glittering model of such a toilet on the Russian revolutionary's empty plinth. The rumour was apparently false, but Yanukovich's uninvited guests were not too disappointed. They did find an enormous galleon on a lake and faux-ancient ruins, a fleet of boats and a vast collection of Soviet cars, motorbikes and military vehicles.
Some strolled around the president’s golf course and took a swing with his monogrammed clubs. Others wandered past the manicured lawns, endless rows of neatly trimmed hedges and scores of stone cherubs and life- size bronze stags and horses.
Children dashed around the grounds, petting the president’s deer, sheep and goats and having pictures taken in front of an enclosure of strutting ostriches and peacocks. Their parents peered into rooms shining with marble, rosewood and chandeliers and a vast cellar of champagne, wine and bottles of brandy emblazoned with the president’s face.
They also discovered a boxing ring where the burly leader – twice jailed for assault in his youth – may have tried to stay in shape. Now he was on the run and activists had taken control of his playground – two- thirds of the size of Monaco – without resistance on Saturday morning.
Security camera footage revealed that a fleet of trucks had left the estate on Friday night, showing several people carrying small bags into two helicopters, climbing aboard and taking off.
In a video recording released on Saturday afternoon, Yanukovich said he was in Kharkiv, where the mayor and governor were close allies. However he did not appear at a rally they organised that day, and later they reportedly flew to Moscow. Border guards said on Saturday night they stopped Yanukovich flying out from an airport in Donetsk, his home region, and that he had got into a car and been driven away.
At his old mansion, meanwhile, damning evidence was piling up of how he ruled the country since 2010. In the lake, divers found ammunition and files containing details of prominent journalists and activists.
Other papers revealed massive donations from Yanukovich’s “sponsors” and grotesque spending on an estate that one visitor called “Ukrainian Disneyland”. One document ordered almost €1.7 million to be paid to a German firm for “wooden items for the dining and tea room”.
