Viktor Yanukovych the sister of his former cook of the Mezhyhirya Residence. Polezhay also lived in the Mezhyhirya Residence and left Ukraine with Yanukovych in 2014. "Ukrayinska Pravda" claims that during Yanukovych presidency his wife Lyudmyla lived separately in Donetsk. After the start of the War in Donbass she reportedly moved to Crimea. In March 2012, Yanukovych stated it was "a problem" for him in 2002 to speak Ukrainian but that "once I had the opportunity to speak Ukrainian, I started to do it with pleasure". Until 2004, Yanukovych was known as "batia" ("Dad") among his family members, but since that time
Mayor of Kiev mayor of Kiev Leonid Chernovetsky of the office of Head of Kiev City Administration, while still preserving the post of mayor. This led to Chernovetsky being deprived of any official decision-making role and most power in the capital was handed over to the Head of Kiev City Administration. At that time that was Oleksandr Popov who was appointed by President Viktor Yanukovych on 16 November 2010. Before these amendments, the elected mayor of the Kiev City Council was automatically appointed also as head of the Kiev City City Administration. Chernovetsky was not seen in Kiev for several months after Popov's