A lot has changed in Andrii Balon’s life after the beginning of the full-scale war. The former head of the Kirovohrad RSA got conscripted, became an advisor to the mayor of Drohobych and a university teacher, and began doing charity work.
The only thing that remained unchanged was Balon’s status – his being accused of bribery.
In 2020, Andrii Balon was detained on suspicion of extorting UAH 1.8 mln. Six years have passed since then, but there is still no verdict in this case. After conscription, Balon rarely attends hearings, and in 2024, the court suspended the consideration of his case due to his military service.
While the judicial process is suspended, Krylati [The Winged], a company, headed by his former driver, with a trademark for strike UAVs and an annual income of UAH 150 mln, appeared in his life.
“Andrii Balon Huber Kirovohrad” A name, stated for Andrii Balon in Getcontact app
On June 25, 2020, Ihor Boichuk, the head of the regional Derzhprodspozhyvsluzhba [the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection], came to the car, parked near the Kirovohrad RSA. Behind the wheel of Mercedes-Benz GL 350, there was Serhii Shevchenko, the head of the executive support service of the RSA. Boichuk got into the front seat, and after a short conversation, placed a folder with UAH 250 thousand on the back seat.
This was the second transfer of the money. The first UAH 100 thousand was transferred by Boichuk to Shevchenko three weeks before, in the same vehicle.
According to the investigators’ version, the money was intended for the then head of the Kirovohrad RSA, Andrii Balon Andrii Balon was appointed the head of the Kirovohrad regional state administration since November 8, 2019. Boichuk was supposed to pay this money to keep his position.
Andrii Balon in 2020 (a photo by the Kirovohrad RSA)
Later, during the interrogation, Ihor Boichuk said that it all started in April 2020, in the reception of the head of the Kirovohrad RSA. While he was waiting for a scheduled meeting with Andrii Balon, Serhii Shevchenko came up to him, and invited Ihor to his office.
Shevchenko started asking questions about the work of the Derzhprodspozhyvsluzhba: how many markets, slaughterhouses, meat-processing enterprises the region had, and what volumes of grain export there were. Boichuk started telling about anti-corruption measures in his department. In response, as Ihor Boichuk recalled, Shevchenko said that “a fight with corruption is very good” and wondered whether Boichuk wanted “to work in a team”.
In Boichuk’s words, at first he didn’t get the hint. Then Shevchenko explained that if Boichuk wanted to stay “within the team”, then he was to give Balon money via him. At the time, Shevchenko didn’t name exact amounts, he only asked to prepare a document, stating the work indices of the Derzhprodspozhyvsluzhba for him.
After this conversation, Boichuk came to Balon. At first, he assumed that the extortion of money could be the initiative of Shevchenko only. But Balon assured him that he “saw the willingness” of Boichuk to “work in a team” and advised him to listen to Shevchenko’s words, calling the latter his confidant.
In about a week, Shevchenko called Boichuk to his office again. This time, it was about specific amounts – UAH 3,000 from the heads of veterinary and sanitary laboratories in the markets of the region. A total of 37 such laboratories work in the Kirovohrad region, that is every month, Boichuk was supposed to bring UAH 111 thousand, or UAH 1.33 mln a year.
On May 22, Boichuk came to Balon again. He asked what he was to do if the law enforcement agencies started asking “sharp” questions. In Boichuk’s words, Balon answered that in this case, he was to immediately contact either him or Shevchenko. During the interrogation, Boichuk also recollected another phrase of the head of the RSA that large collective bodies were “to follow the commander’s lead”.
After the conversation with Balon, Boichuk went to Shevchenko and showed him the financial indices of the laboratories. In 2019, they received almost UAH 12 mln.
After that, the transactional scheme changed. Shevchenko explained that it would not be fixed but “interesting for everyone”. It was about 15% of the turnover of the laboratories which was UAH 1.8 mln a year.
At that time, Boichuk contacted law enforcement bodies. Subsequent transfers of the money were done under the surveillance of the NABU.
On June 4, the detectives gave him UAH 100 thousand. Boichuk went to the RSA and gave it to Shevchenko in the car of the latter. Three weeks later, Boichuk brought UAH 250 thousand, after which searches and detentions started.
Shevchenko and Balon were detained on June 25. During the search of Balon’s office, they found UAH 40 thousand in the inside pocket of his jacket, and the numbers of the banknotes coincided with those on the money, given by Boichuk to Shevchenko.
So, on the same day, on June 25, the Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, announced the dismissal of Andrii Balon from the position of the head of the Kirovohrad RSA without any explanation of the reasons. However, several hours later, the reasons became clear when late at night, the NABU reported the detention of “the head of one regional state administration” and his accomplice for bribery.
UAH 250 thousand, given by Ihor Boichuk to Serhii Shevchenko under the surveillance of the NABU on June 25, 2020 (a photo by the NABU)
On June 26, Andrii Balon was officially given a notice of charges For aiding and abetting a public official in a position of responsibility in obtaining an unlawful benefit of an exceptionally large amount, and the following day, Volodymyr Zelenskyi dismissed him from his position. That’s when HACC set a bail for Balon in the amount of UAH 10 mln.
Andrii Balon denied the charges in court. He claimed that the minutes of the law enforcement bodies contain “the truth only in the first paragraph” about his working relations with Boichuk.
He also argued that he had no money for this bail. However, in less than one month, the bail was paid, and he left the detention centre. His bail of UAH 10 mln was paid by two Poltava entrepreneurs The bail was paid by Serhii Hulak and Oksana Rozdolianska – an owner and director of the Poltava-based company, HPL.
“Andrii Balon Course Mate” A name, stated for Andrii Balon in Getcontact app
As of the moment of the search in the office, Andrii Balon was in Kyiv. During the hearing in which his restrictive measure was selected, he said that he didn’t know what was going on in Kropyvnytskyi. At the same time, they read two messages from the phone, extracted from him, in court which implied that he started looking for help in the President’s Office almost immediately.
The first message was to Serhii Trofimov At that moment, the first deputy head of the President’s Office, before entering politics he was the producer of the Kvartal 95 studio. Balon wrote about the search in his office and asked for help. The next message was written to Oleh Tatarov The then advisor of the head of the President’s Office on law enforcement issues, now the deputy head of the President’s Office, called the curator of the entire security apparatus of the country: “Mate, I need an urgent meeting.”
Tatarov and Balon have been acquainted for a long time. They were course mates at the Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs and both graduated in 2003. It was Tatarov who in 2015 became the opponent when Balon was defending his dissertation The topic of Balon’s dissertation was the investigation of crimes, committed while abusing one’s official position.
Balon’s dissertation also contained other surnames from the current top positions in the law enforcement system, who are listed among the close circle of Oleh Tatarov. The commission which confirmed the practical application of the dissertation results included Maksym Tsutskiridze who currently fulfils the duties of the head of the National Police Tsutskiridze and Tatarov were born in the same town – Novoukrainka in the Kirovohrad region. According to the data from the journalists’ investigations, they are friends from their childhood and godfathers of each other’s children.
Maksym Tsutskiridze and Oleh Tatarov at the birthday party of the latter (a photo by Ukrainska Pravda)
Balon’s messages alone don’t prove that Tatarov had any impact on his case after the detention. However, in the spring of 2021, Balon’s attorneys tried to get his case from the NABU. Almost immediately after the indictment was filed with the court, they appealed to the Pechersky Court of Kyiv, requesting a change in jurisdiction.
The Anti-Corruption Centre (ACC) called it an attempt to apply “Tatarov’s scheme”. That’s how the ACC called the scheme when the ruling of the Pechersky Court was used to try to transfer the cases, subject to the NABU’s investigation, to other law enforcement bodies – the SSU, the SBI, or the National Police, where the investigation was either delayed or closed. The same scheme was used in the cases of Judge Pavlo Vovk, the Dubnevych brothers and Oleh Tatarov in the case regarding the Ukrbud.
As for Balon, the attempt to take his case from the NABU failed. There wasn’t much help for him from the criminal investigation which was initiated against NABU detectives and SSU specialists at the request of the defence who claimed the alleged falsification of the case. The SBI didn’t find any criminal elements in their actions.
On April 28, 2022, Balon got conscripted and stopped coming to court hearings. In almost two years, he came to court only once, and submitted regular requests to postpone hearings due to his military service.
Meanwhile, Serhii Shevchenko, the second accused in this case, started cooperating with the investigators in exchange for his testimony against Balon. In August 2023, the court sentenced Shevchenko to three years’ probation and ordered him to donate UAH 2.5 mln to the army.
As for Andrii Balon, he still kept ignoring court hearings, so, finally, in March 2024, the court suspended the consideration of his case.
The court came to the conclusion that Balon didn’t possess “technical means for online participation” and in the area of active combat tasks, there were no required technical conditions. So, as per the court’s conclusion, he could participate in court hearings “neither in person nor online”.
But is it really so?
“Andrii Drohobych Mayor’s Advisor” A name, stated for Andrii Balon in Getcontact app
The attorneys explained Andrii Balon’s absence from the court hearings by his implementing combat tasks outside the permanent base of the military regiment in Kyiv. Yet NGL.media found public traces of Balon in the first months after his conscription. They led to Drohobych in the Lviv region.
On May 19, 2022, the website of the Drohobych city council posted the news about the transfer of charitable aid to the rescuers of the city. The photos show the mayor, Taras Kuchma, with Andrii Balon, who is represented as the mayor’s advisor. Despite Balon’s official conscription three weeks before, he wore civilian clothes.
Andrii Balon (in the centre) while transferring the equipment from charities to the Drohobych rescue workers; Taras Kuchma, the mayor of Drohobych, is on his right (a photo by the DCC)
Four days later, Balon was mentioned on the official website of the city council again. On May 23, he participated in the opening ceremony for the tactical medicine course in the neighbouring Stryi. And here he served as the advisor of the Drohobych mayor too. The same event was highlighted by the Stryi city council. Balon’s surname isn’t mentioned in the text, but he is in the posted photo – in civilian clothes again.
Drohobych isn’t in Balon’s biography by accident. At the beginning of his career, he worked here as an investigator for six years. His parents and mother-in-law are registered as residents of this city. His family owns an apartment here – it was arrested by the HACC among other property items.
In July of the same year, Balon was mentioned by the website of the Drohobych city council again – this time, as the head of the NGO “Rekrut”, which was to deal with the tactical medicine trainings and “military and patriotic upbringing”. “Rekrut” was created a week after Balon’s claimed conscription. At present, the website of the organization and its social network accounts are “dead”.
Andrii Balon’s public activity wasn’t limited to the Lviv region only. In January 2023, he was seen in Vinnytsia when humanitarian aid was sent to the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. The local media called him a representative of the Ukrainian Foundation “Dream” charitable fund. Balon told journalists that he intended to take part in helping southern regions later as well.
Viktor Broniuk from TiK music band and Andrii Balon transfer charitable aid in Vinnytsia (a photo by “20 minutes Vinnytsia”)
In a conversation with NGL.media, Andrii Balon claimed that it was his decision to get conscripted and that he didn’t try to immediately use it to suspend the criminal proceedings. “I didn’t suspend it for two years, though I had this possibility,” he said.
Balon claimed that he was an outside advisor to the Drohobych mayor and dealt with humanitarian issues and “preparation of the population to active resistance”, but immediately after his conscription he left Drohobych. He couldn’t explain why he had been mentioned in the news of the city council at least three times.
In response to NGL.media’s inquiry, the Drohobych city council told us that Andrii Balon was the outside advisor of the mayor in the humanitarian sphere from February 25 to December 30, 2022.
“Andrii Commander of Something” A name, stated for Andrii Balon in Getcontact app
On May 1, 2026, the rector of the Kherson State Agricultural University (KhSAU) The university moved to Kropyvnytskyi announced on social networks that Andrii Balon was awarded the degree of associate professor in the department of public administration, law, and humanities. This decision was confirmed by the Order of the Ministry of Education.
Yet Balon had been related to the Kherson University long before that. In the rector’s report for 2023, he featured as a department employee who had 180 hours of international internship in the subject of “European Experience and Global Practices in Higher Education”.
The university told NGL.media that on October 2, 2023, Balon was given the part-time position of an associate professor with a quarter of the salary. He taught three subjects: the theory of state and law, local government, and strategic management of local and regional programmes.
At the same time, since early spring of 2022, the educational process in the KhSAU has been conducted online. According to the information from the university, this mode of study will be in place “till the completion of the legal status of martial law”.
So, at least since October 2023, Balon combined his military service with an online teaching job. At the same time, he allegedly had no means of communication and technical possibilities to participate in the HACC meetings, at least online.
As for Andrii Balon, he doesn’t see any contradictions here. In the conversation with NGL.media, he insisted that teaching and scientific activity isn’t prohibited during military service.
“Andrii Krylati” A name, stated for Andrii Balon in Getcontact app
The most interesting things appear in the biography of a serviceman, Balon, with the occurrence of Krylati.
At the beginning of 2023, Andrii Balon told the media about opening a school for strike UAV operators, Krylati. He promised classes in Kyiv, Poltava, and Lviv. He also said that his “team” had developed their own military UAV.
NGL.media checked the register of companies for the name, Krylati. SPF Krylati LLC was registered a month prior to the public opening of the school in Kyiv. The only founder with 100% share was listed as one Mykola Kolodych.
We found the first clue about his connection to Andrii Balon in the declaration of Kolodych’s wife. It says that her husband worked at the Kirovohrad RSA. He also received his salary from Aptekar-Group LLC, whose co-owner was Ilona Balon – the wife of the head of the RSA. The leaked databases gave another detail – other users registered Kolodych’s number as “Kolia Driver” and “Kolia, Andrii’s Driver”.
In response to NGL.media’ inquiry, the Kirovohrad RSA confirmed that in 2019-2020, Mykola Kolodych worked as their driver. During the same period it was headed by Andrii Balon.
On August 17, 2020, the HACC allowed Andrii Balon to move from Kropyvnytskyi to Kyiv. On the same day, Kolodych stopped working for the RSA. He and his family moved to Kyiv too. The declaration of Kolodych’s wife for 2021 mentions the rented apartment in Kyiv, which belongs to Ilona Balon.
In July 2024, it was Ilona Balon who became the owner of SPF Krylati, replacing Mykola Kolodych. However, the former driver didn’t vanish from business – he is still the director of the LLC.
In the conversation with NGL.media, Mykola Kolodych said that he combines his work as the director of SPF Krylati and his military service, he said it is an example for other entrepreneurs that “it is possible to serve [in the army], work, and pay taxes”.
At first, he denied his acquaintance with Balon, but after being reminded about his work as a driver in the Kirovohrad RSA, he recollected, “We are mates, we talk. He serves, I serve.” In Kolodych’s words, they serve in different regiments.
Andrii Balon also confirmed their relations, “Mykola Kolodych is definitely not a random person in my life, I have responsibility for people who work with me.”
But what does a company, belonging to Balon’s wife and directed by his former driver, do?
According to the data of YouControl, SPF Krylati registered a trademark “Rubaka”. In the application on the website of IP Office [the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations] A state body responsible for registration of intellectual property in Ukraine three classes of goods and services are stated: vehicles and equipment for travel by land, air, or water; weapons and ammunition; as well as advertising and the organization of business activities.
At the end of July 2023, this name appeared in open sources.
Vladyslav Shevchenko, a blogger, announced the beginning of fund-raising for a batch of new Ukrainian strike UAVs. In his posted video, he allegedly celebrates his birthday together with a Rubaka UAV. “Fellows, I have received a request for 18 kamikaze Rubaka drones from one special unit of the CID [Chief Intelligence Directorate]. We need to raise UAH 10 mln,” the blogger said.
A Ukrainian drone, Rubaka (a photo by the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense)
One UAV cost about UAH 550 thousand. In the same video, an unnamed Ukrainian serviceman of the CID said that Rubakas had already been used in active combat. Militarnyi wrote that a drone was produced by a classified Ukrainian defense company. Defense Express also reported the beginning of the production of Rubakas and stated that they are intended for the use by units of the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.
Since the first public appearance of Rubaka, this drone features exclusively in connection with the Chief Intelligence Directorate (CID). NGL.media didn’t find any confirmation of the use of this drone by units of other Ukrainian security forces.
This is relevant for our story due to one reason. According to the data of the SAP, in June 2024 Andrii Balon continued his military service under contract. Both the regiment he was conscripted into in 2022 and the one in which he continued his service under contract belong to the CID system.
NGL.media tried to clarify the role of Andrii Balon in the development, testing, or production of Rubaka, but he refused, referring to limitations on disclosing the information about defense-related goods.
He didn’t answer the question about his possible promotion of contacts between the CID units and Krylati for the company to get their orders.
Meanwhile, Mykola Kolodych confirmed for NGL.media that SPF Krylati produced Rubaka, but at present, these drones “aren’t used yet”.
Nevertheless, the company started making a profit. According to the financial reports, Krylati completed the last year with the revenue of over UAH 155 mln, which was five times more than the previous year. The net income amounted to UAH 21.3 mln. And only seven people officially worked in the company.
Two premium-class cars are registered in the company’s name – Porsche Cayenne and BMW I4, both of 2024.
Krylati is not the only company to feature Mykola Kolodych. In May 2026, Aeromavka LLC was registered in Kyiv – another producer, related to UAVs. At first, Balon’s son, 20-year-old Matvii, was listed as the founder with a 100% share, but soon, 50% was registered with La Salutte LLC.
Similar to Krylati, Mykola Kolodych became the director of Aeromavka. When asked, what this company is doing, he gives a laconic answer, “We are producing, we are defending the country.”
“Andrii Yurkivska” A name, stated for Andrii Balon in Getcontact app
Even prior to the occurrence of SPF Krylati LLC, there appeared NGO TsP Krylati, founded by Mykola Kolodych. The chairman of the board was Anton Portnyi, one of Balon’s attorneys in the bribery case.
The NGO was registered at a Kyiv apartment, belonging to Ilona Balon which had previously been rented by the Kolodychs.
A question arises. After the dismissal from the position of the head of Kirovohrad RSA in 2020, Balon was allowed by the court to live in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, and accepted an obligation to attend the HACC meetings regularly. We didn’t find any other home of their family in the capital. So where did Balon and his family actually live at that time?
At the same time, in December 2020, Balon’s mother-in-law, Oksana Ozolina, became the owner of the four-room apartment with an area of 165 sq.m. in the very centre of the Kyiv’s Podol, worth about USD 300 thousand (over UAH 7 mln at the then exchange rate). However, Oksana Ozolina could hardly afford such an acquisition. According to NGL.media’s data, at least since 2010, she has been working at the Drohobych city maternity hospital, and her total income in 2010-2020 was about one million hryvnia.
In Getcontact, the personal address of Andrii Balon in several contacts is stated in association with the very street where this apartment is located. Usually, this is the way people sign their contacts when it is related to some repairs or solving household issues, related to apartments.
Andrii Balon refused to talk to NGL.media about this apartment.
Later, his son happened to acquire a home in Kyiv as well. Before August 2025, the total income of Matvii Balon, who was 19 at the time, was a little over UAH 500 thousand. He received this money from two companies, related to his family – SPF Krylati and Aircraft Engineering.
In August 2025, Matvii Balon acquired an apartment and a parking place in the residential complex Gercen Park, one of the most expensive newly built buildings in Kyiv. The cost of a two-room apartment in RC Gercen Park starts at UAH 7 mln, plus a parking place worth UAH 300-400 thousand depending on its area. Last December, Matvii also became the owner of a BMW i7, worth about USD 40 thousand.
Andrii Balon didn’t register any real estate in Kyiv in his own name, and his wife’s property was arrested by the HACC in 2020 within the criminal investigation.
Author Aliona Malichenko, editor Oleh Onysko, translation Nelya Plakhota, cover Viktoria Demchuk
