For the past 96 hours, a group of journalists that have been holed up at ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s 343-acre palatial estate have stuck to a routine: Dry the documents. Scan the documents. Analyze the documents. Publish the documents. Repeat.
Found floating near a dock close to the fugitive president's opulent estate, the documents expose Yanukovych's lavish life: $2.3 million on dining room decorations, $1 million for a lawn watering system and $17,000 for tablecloths. And that's only the beginning, which is why these journalists are racing to rescue and publish this cache of documents on the website yanukovychleaks.org — before they are gone forever.
See also: 5 Big Questions About the Future of Ukraine
However, there’s one thing that Mezhyhirya, which was exposed to the public after the president fled town, doesn't have much of at all...
High-speed Internet.
Speaking to Mashable at 5 a.m. local time from the estate, Natalie Sedletska, one of the journalists, says the connection at Mezhyhirya was so bad in those hectic first hours that they turned to Facebook for help.
“It was impossible!” Sedletska says, her voice withering with exhaustion. “There are no towers around here, we couldn’t get mobile, 3G or whatever, and so I posted on Facebook, ‘Hey guys does anybody have a satellite?’”
An owner of a local Internet and TV service provider responded: “I can do that,” and arrived shortly after with his workers and a satellite dish.
“We are strong when we come together,” Sedletska says. “We learned this from EuroMadian.”
Sedletska, an investigative journalist with Radio Free Europe, is entering her fifth day encamped at the former Ukrainian president’s estate just outside of the capital city of Kiev.
She's hunkered down alongside reporters from the Kyiv Post, Hromadske TV and members of a global network of investigative journalists called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). Others on the technical side of the team, like Dan O'Huiginn, who "threw together a site over the weekend," are based off-site in Bosnia and Germany.
“[We] are working for different media outlets, and usually we are competitive—in a good way,” Sedletska says. “These documents are something that brought us together, and now we are working as one team. We don’t compete anymore on this project."
sorting thru Mezhyhirya files. day 2. @natasedletska @annababinets @MichaelShchur @akymenko_y #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/3fuCmYbbLK
— Katya Gorchinskaya (@kgorchinskaya) February 24, 2014
One of the noteworthy things about this project is the journalists' willingness to preserve first and report later, O'Huiginn tells Mashable. "They're deliberately not spending their time reporting, but getting docs together."
Collaborating on this scale, on this timeline, and under these circumstances is no easy feat.
"There will be stories posted," O'Huiginn says. "But I'm not sure when."
Some of the documents, as Mashable's Christopher Miller reported from Kiev on Tuesday, had been scorched. Others were pulled soaking wet from the sea floor. But already their efforts are paying off.
Запрацював сайт http://t.co/R4U0A2rexU
Вночі почали викладати перші сотні межигірських документів. #yanukovychleaks pic.twitter.com/52zm5shxGW
— Natalie Sedletska (@natasedletska) February 25, 2014
"We've been building the boat while sailing it, so to speak," says O'Huiginn. "The first priority was to get the information out. The situation has turned out very well so far, but at the start we didn't have any idea whether everybody would be removed. So we wanted to get documents secured, and get them out in public to show that this is about transparency and accountability."
As Yanukovych hides out in Rostov under the protection of Russian government, the journalists at his estate continue to work relentlessly. Things like food and sleep are an afterthought.
“This was something that we never thought of doing — eating!” Sedletska says with a laugh.
But they are getting support from the community. Food, drinks, towels, clean T-shirts are just some of the things that appeared at various points during their week-long investigation.
“Somebody came in and said, ‘Here’s the food.’ Somebody saw a report on TV that we are here and they just brought hot soup," Sedletska says. "It’s all about just regular people who want to help who think that it is important what we do."
Banned from working within the living quarters of the president itself—which is fine by Sedletska, who calls the place “incredibly disgusting” for its tackiness—the team has set up shop in an adjacent three-story guest house, where they’ve found couches and sofas.
After a few days in the guest house, they discovered another trove of documents in a nearby administrative building for the shell company that Yanukovych established to run the estate. Even this one is ridiculous in its excessiveness, Sedletska says, describing a cafeteria for the workers with a room used entirely for washing chicken eggs.
A handful of the journalists spent Thursday night in the new building, examining the most explosive revelations while huddled around a table. Down the hall they were joined by a roomful of volunteers, who were diligently working to scan and preserve the new bounty. Online, the technical team chatted over Skype, loaded files into a GitHub repository and monitored their server.
All of this, Sedletska explains, is just "phase two” of the operation. After days of coordinating and five sleepless nights, the team is ready for their biggest collaboration yet: their first exclusives based on the documents.
“We really want to finish this story,” Sedletska says. “We are investigative journalists.”
People walk on the territory of Ukrainian President Yanukovych's countryside residence in Mezhyhirya, Kiev's region, Ukraine, on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. Ukrainian security and volunteers from among Independence Square protesters have joined forces to protect the presidential countryside retreat from vandalism and looting.
A protester waves an EU flag at the Ukrainian President Yanukovych's country residence in Mezhyhirya, Kiev's region, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014.
A protester guards the entrance to Ukrainian President Yanukovych's countryside residence in Mezhyhirya, Kiev's region, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014.
Protesters relax at Ukrainian President Yanukovych's countryside residence in Mezhyhirya, Kiev's region, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014.
An anti-government protester tries to protect suspected supporters of Ukraine's embattled president Viktor Yanukovych from getting assaulted in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. Fears that Ukraine could split in two mounted Saturday as regional lawmakers in the pro-Russian east questioned the authority of the national parliament. Protesters took control of Ukraine's capital and parliament sought to oust the president.
Anti-government protesters shout as a suspected supporter of Ukraine's embattled president Viktor Yanukovych is assaulted in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014.
People wave Ukrainian flags as they enter Ukrainian President Yanukovych's countryside-residence in Mezhyhirya, Kiev's region, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014.
Protesters stand guard in front of a presidential administrative building in central Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. Protesters in the Ukrainian capital claimed full control of the city Saturday following the signing of a Western-brokered peace deal aimed at ending the nation's three-month political crisis. The nation's embattled president, Viktor Yanukovych, reportedly had fled the capital for his support base in Ukraine's Russia-leaning east.
A woman walks past a column of protesters with shields and sticks moving towards the parliament building in central Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. Ukraine's embattled president is calling the country's political crisis a coup and says it resembles the rise of Nazis in the 1930s. Viktor Yanukovych also says he has no intention of resigning or leaving the country.
A protester poses next to an captured armored vehicle, in central Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014.
Men shout slogans during mourning for protesters killed in recent clashes, in central Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014.
Protesters react at Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's countryside residence, in Mezhyhirya, Kiev's region, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb, 22, 2014.