In Ukraine, bitter divorces among the country’s influential and rich elite are just starting to make headlines of their own
Twice-divorced real-estate tycoon Donald Trump knew how to get out clean.
Along with a hand in marriage, he offered his former partners expensive accessories: pre-nuptial agreements. Ivana Trump and Marla Maples, with $25 million and $1 million in farewell dowries, respectively, even wished him well with his new brides.
The painful divorce cases of the rich and famous, such as Trump, have been splattered all over tabloids in the West for decades. In Ukraine, such bitter splits among the country’s influential and rich elite are just starting to make headlines of their own. Juicy divorce details, assets in contention and even family photographs dominate the pages of such paparazzi publications as www.tabloid.com.ua
Yet the process of divorcing a mogul in Ukraine remains a far cry from tales of glitter, fortune and fame seen in the West. Most Ukrainians see marriage contracts as urban legends from Hollywood films with no relevance to local realities.
“But when you leave home and cannot come back because of guards at the door … then it is serious,” said Marharyta Chervonenko, drawing a line through her 18 years of marriage.
Marharyta Chervonenko, ex-wife of politician and affluent businessman Yevhen Chervonenko, may have ushered in an era of tabloid celebrity divorces with her bitter split after 18 years of marriage (Photo UNIAN)
She married a big shot. Her ex-husband is Yevhen Chervonenko, an affluent businessman and former car racer. He is also a former transportation minister and was governor of Zaporizhya Oblast. Now he supervises preparations for the Euro 2012 soccer championship to be co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland.
The Chervonenkos got divorced in 2007 without benefit of a prenup that would spell out how to divide the considerable assets. They went along with the “all-is-fair-in-love-and-war” scenario, so the split has become quite nasty.
“Since then, I have been through raider attacks, bankruptcy and threats,” she said. “He once told me that I broke up with the system, not just him.”
Fearing she would be left with nothing after divorce, Marharyta launched a fight over the couple’s assets two years ago along with a public campaign to defend her rights and help others in similar situations.
Under Ukrainian law, divorcing couples must split everything they accumulated in marriage 50-50 – unless there is a contract, of course. The Ukrainian rich, however, rarely list assets in their own name. They declare only small official incomes, a path that leads to a lot of mystery and insinuations in turbulent times.
The Chervonenko case seems to be just like that.
When the former racer landed in politics, he transferred some of his businesses to his wife’s name, she said. Their properties had a different story.
In court, a judge managed to revoke Marharyta’s rights to their house in a prestigious Kyiv suburb and her mother’s flat in Yalta. The ex-husband, however, was not a beneficiary.
A former friend who had officially given these properties as presents to the Chervonenko family suddenly decided to take them back and won the case.
Marharyta did not give up and continues appealing the verdict. Her daughter from a previous marriage also filed a lawsuit against her former stepfather, alleging that he denied her entry to the flat where she is still formally registered.
Yevhen Chervonenko refused to comment on personal matters.
This messy case is likely to drag on.
“These processes take years,” said Zoryslava Romovska, author of Ukraine’s Family Code.
“A defendant pretends he is sick, and then his lawyer is sick. Then, they are both on a holiday and so it goes in circles.”
According to Justice Ministry statistics, every second marriage ends in divorce in Ukraine. But, strangely enough, prenups are still frowned upon.
“A prenup will not guarantee you love, but it will ensure stability,” Romovska said.
For instance, a husband moves in with his wife into her flat. Under civil law, he can live there indefinitely. However, authorities will make him leave in the event of divorce, if there is a contract. Contracts can be beneficial in other ways, too, spelling out responsibilities.
“You cannot contract how many times a week you should kiss each other,” laughed Romovska. “However, no one can stop you from specifying that a woman is responsible for raising children and a man for making money.”
A prenup is free in form, she added, and lawyers usually include whatever the couple thinks is important. Family law does not clarify the division of responsibilities. It says that only material rights can be discussed in a contract. But its author, Romovska, argues that domestic duties have a direct relationship to the joint assets.
An average prenup costs Hr 800. However, even lawyers ignore them.
One lawyer who might have wished he had a prenup is Serhiy Vlasenko, famous for defending Victor Yushchenko’s case in the Supreme Court during the disputed 2004 presidential vote. On the waves of the Orange Revolution, the popular uprising, Vlasenko set the stage for Yushchenko winning the presidency.
Famous after appearing on television during the legendary court case, Vlasenko married a model and socialite, Natalya Okunska.
Although it was not his bride’s first marriage and she had children, the lawyer failed to arrange a prenup. Accusing each other of adultery and assault, they divorced last September. Okunska hooked up again with her previous husband, himself high in political echelons and father of one of her children.
“It’s all over the papers, I have nothing to add,” said Vlasenko, chary on words.
In earlier interviews, he denied beating his wife and specified that he provides for the children in line with a financial agreement they had. Okunska, however, is complaining that she was exploited and then left with nothing.
Romovska said in cases like these, there could be psychological reasons behind the mess.
“Like any other divorcees, the women of oligarchs are left with a scar,” said Romovska. “Despite a car, a house and a dacha left by their husbands, they keep lamenting for their former status and money.”
Not all of them, however. A Ukrainian dancer who married a distant cousin of Sophie Lauren, the famous Italian actress, said she wanted neither.
“We bought a wedding dress and a tuxedo with my own money,” said Olga Kopitsa, now 32, reflecting on her marriage with Roberto Skala, now 35. “I thought the rest would come in its own time.”
At a concert in Pisa, he spotted her on stage and in a few months they got married. When Kopitsa got pregnant, they moved in with his family in Naples. She claims to have felt like a prisoner there.
“He rarely worked and only partied with friends,” she recalled. “His family watched my every step. I was allowed a bath only once a week and could only watch TV until nine in the evening.”
She finally escaped on the pretense of a holiday in Ukraine. Kopitsa said all she wanted was a divorce to start a new life at home. But without a marriage certificate, it seemed impossible. With the help of the Italian Embassy in Kyiv, she located their marriage certificate and then divorced under Ukrainian law. In Italy, however, she may still be considered officially married. “We didn’t have a prenup. We had nothing,” she shrugged.
Skala was not immediately available for comment.
Most lawyers, however, recommend a contract in the event of marriage to foreigners, since divorce laws vary wildly. The Economist magazine even published “A Globetrotters Guide to Divorce” for those born in one country, married in another and working somewhere else.
In Ukraine, a woman was traditionally blamed for divorce. High-profile cases were hushed up. Across the ocean, things were different. Backed by the prenup, Trump wife No. 1 wrote a self-help book for divorcees. Trump wife number No. 2 co-starred in a reality show “Ex-wives Club.”
Marharyta Chervonenko seems to have started a trend by going public with her version of “The War of the Roses,” the 1989 Hollywood hit movie starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. She founded an organization called “I Am Strong” to help abandoned wives. She says in marriage she felt like a horse running in a circus arena. She now claims to be better off helping others get over the same.
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When I learned that the second largest nation of Europe had graduated the first class from its only school of public health, I wanted to see this school myself. Trained and experienced in medicine and public health, I wanted to observe the development of this new actor first-hand. Coincidentally the school had an opening for a visiting Fulbright Scholar from August through December 2006.In a bold new step, the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy School of Public Health enrolled its first students in 2004. The two-year master degree program is a “work in progress” that prepares students for professional positions in teaching, research, and consulting. The program is an official partner of the School of Public Health at University of Maastricht, Netherlands. 
By Glen Willard
