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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
25 June 2024 year in Mukachevo law enforcement officers detained the mayor Andriy Baloga and the head of Mukachevo district council Mykhailo Lanyo in the case of selling municipal land near the Avangard stadium at a depressed price. According to NABU and SAP, the plot of 3,02 ha, whose market value the investigation estimates at 84,6–91,4 million UAH, was sold to a company connected with Lanyo for 9,645 million UAH. The officers estimate the community’s loss at 81,7 million UAH. Baloga remains mayor, and 29 May 2026 year the High Anti-Corruption Court proceeded to consider the case on the merits.
As written by “Incredibly, but true,” the land in the central part of Mukachevo, where the Avangard stadium complex is located, is at issue. According to court monitoring of the case, LLC "Universal-M" purchased the complex in 2003 year. NABU and SAP believe that in 2023 year Lanyo turned to Baloga with an agreement to purchase the land, and the mayor secured approval of the relevant decision by the city council. After the land was acquired, according to the prosecution, it was planned to be used for the construction of a residential-commercial complex. A separate episode concerns the valuation of the plot. The investigation believes appraiser Serhiy Fil used as benchmarks land plots from other regions, not similar objects near the stadium in central Mukachevo. According to case materials, former head of the city council’s land department Artur Samilyak passed Fil 16 thousand UAH of improper benefit. Another defendant, appraiser Nataliya Cherednichenko, according to the investigation, prepared and signed the expert monetary valuation report. In July 2025 year NABU and SAP sent the indictment to the High Anti-Corruption Court. The prosecution accuses Baloga, in particular, of abuse of office and use of forged documents, and Lanyo of organizing the corresponding abuse. In total six defendants are named: Baloga, Lanyo, Samilyak, Fil, Zaluzhnyi, and Cherednichenko. 29 May 2026 year the court began to examine the case on the merits. As of September 2026 year there is no verdict. After Baloga’s detention in June 2024 year the High Anti-Corruption Court set a pretrial restriction of either detention or bail in the amount of 30 million UAH. In 2026 year the bail was reduced to 20 million UAH. Baloga himself continues to perform the duties of Mukachevo mayor. In March 2026 year Lanyo resigned his deputy mandate in Mukachevo district council. A separate line of the case concerns Nataliya Cherednichenko, who, after the start of criminal proceedings, was abroad. In September 2025 year she was extradited from Germany to Ukraine, after which the High Anti-Corruption Court set a pretrial measure for her. Serhiy Fil and Vitaliy Zaluzhnyi also were in custody at various stages of the proceedings. Parallel to this, Mukachevo City Council sought to recover the land for the community in a separate court process. In May 2025 year the court denied the relevant suit, so the issue of returning the land remained separate from the criminal case. Thus the matter before the court concerns not only possible accountability of officials and other defendants, but also the question of the monetary damage caused to the community. The case also drew attention due to Baloga’s property declarations. According to data published in open declarations, in 2025 year the mayor declared 560 thousand UAH of salary, a house with an area of 470 square meters, and 607,5 thousand euros in cash. His wife, in 2024 year, declared more than 11 million UAH in income. She herself contributed 30 million UAH as bail for the mayor after his election to a pretrial measure. The criminal proceedings regarding the Avangard case unfold against the backdrop of the Baloga family’s long-standing political influence in Transcarpathia. The mayor’s father, Viktor Baloga, in different years served as Mukachevo mayor, head of the Zakarpattia regional state administration, minister of emergency situations, head of the president's Secretariat, and a people's deputy. In the region, Pavlo and Ivan Baloga and Vasyl Petyovka have also long been figures. It is for the court to determine whether the officials’ and other defendants’ decisions were part of an agreed scheme to sell land at a depressed price. At this stage, NABU and SAP’s assertions are the prosecution’s position, and Baloga’s, Lanyo’s, and other defendants’ guilt has not been established by a convicting verdict.
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Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Андрій Балога навіть після скандальної справи про «Авангард» залишився мером". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Fraza.
