It’s called ‘romance tourism’ and has desperate Ukrainian beauties hoping that one day, just maybe, they might meet a man who can provide them with a life of luxury.

Odessa, a city found along the coast of the Black Sea in Ukraine, has become known for its sex tourism and “bride” trade, as barely legals rub shoulders with Western men who could be their one-way ticket to a better life.

The Daily Beast’s Anna Nemtsova sets the scene:

“Kompot”, a popular café on Odessa’s central pedestrian avenue was crowded on a recent night. Two middle-aged Americans at the corner table tried to communicate with two glamorous young Ukrainian girls. The men with saggy skin and round bellies looked desperate, struggling to make the weekend plans with a few emotional gestures and simple English words. The two girls at their table looked 18-year-old or younger, while their dates could be older than their fathers.

On these spring days Ukraine’s Black Sea resort of Odessa is full of Western men. English, Italian, Arabic and French can be heard around her graceful cafes and restaurants—the romance hunters are chasing slim, big-eyed, tall Ukrainian beauties with shiny long hair.

But these desires and desperation are also fuelled by the success of one model: Olexandra Nikolayenko.

On the day of the U.S. presidential elections, the 35-year old blond Nikolayenko was photographed next to the newly elected President Donald Trump alongside Nikolayenko’s husband, 82-year-old billionaire Phil Ruffin. The photograph went viral on Ukrainian news websites: the model in a tight white dress revealing her fit figure as she and her husband Ruffin spent the election night at the Republican Party’s HQ. The couple raised glasses with Trump and Trump’s wife Melania to his victory. The two ex-models, Melania Trump and Nikoayenko, have reportedly been good girlfriends for more than a decade.

Nikolayenko’s careers began two decades ago when:

… a 15-year-old schoolgirl came with her father, an army officer to Odessa’s oldest model agency, Savrox Models. The director of the agency and Nikolayenko’s teacher Tatiana Savchenko told The Daily Beast how proud she was to be with her student and see the young model first win “Miss Odessa,” then “Miss Ukraine-2001,” and then go on to shine among top beauties at Miss American Dream and Miss Universe beauty contests.

“I introduced my student Nikolayenko to her future husband, Donald Trump’s longtime partner Phil Ruffin and in a few years they got married,” Savchenko told The Daily Beast in an interview on Monday.

In 2008 Nikolayenko Ruffin had a glamorous wedding at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and Savchenko, who Nikolayenko once called her “God Mother”, attended the party. Her 26-year-old student married a 72-year-old billionaire Ruffin, who is worth $2.6 billion, according to Forbes. “Trump was the groom’s best man, smiling and friendly with Melania at his side—we all had so much fun and danced all night,” Savchenko recalled the wedding party that took place.

Nikolayenko’s friends in Odessa pointed out that in spite of the age difference—Ruffin was 47 years older than his Ukrainian wife—the couple had two children and lived happily in that desired-by-many luxurious lifestyle.

And to the Ukrainian women who are poor and have been affected by war, Nikolayenko’s life sounds like the dream.

“It is true that Odessa is crowded with stunning beauties but unfortunately, many of young girls look for easy ways, a rich foreign husband able to pave their way to happier future,” a newly appointed Ukrainian presidential adviser Maria Gaidar told The Daily Beast in a recent interview.

According to Ukraine’s Demography and Social Research Institute, average salaries in the country dropped down to $194 a month last year. Many of Ukrainian young women are broke and desperate these days. Foreign men hunting for wives in Odessa, complain that all women see is their wallets and that it is hard to build a romantic relationship under such financial pressure.

Some women join the thriving sex business; in the evenings young women offer their service on Arnautskaya Street for $11-30 per hour or work at more expensive sex clubs in downtown of Odessa. Yelena Gerasimova from Luhansk despised the idea of prostitution, she did not have time to date foreign men, either. But when her darkest day came and her mother fell deadly ill, 27-year-old Gerasimova, an IDP from Luhanks, cut off her long blond pony-tail and went to sell it to a saloon of natural hair, for extentions. “Nikolayenko’s story sounds too unrealistic,” Gerasimova toldThe Daily Beast. “I do not dream about an American billionaire, I dream of my mother recovering soon.”

I guess everyone has a place in the world, even if it’s on the arm of a billionaire.

[source:thedailybeast]