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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
“Pause” at VAKS and drone business: how former Kirovohrad head Andriy Balon lives after mobilization
If anyone ever tells you that mobilization doesn’t protect you from an anti-corruption court, show them the story of Andriy Balon. The former head of the Kirovohrad regional state administration achieved the impossible in the six years after being arrested with marked bills in his pocket: he got a pause at VAKS due to “lack of connection while on combat,” while simultaneously lecturing students online, working as an advisor to a mayor deep in the rear, and registering a defense company under his driver’s name that has an annual income of 155 million hryvnias.
His nineteen-year-old son still accumulates premium electric cars and apartments in elite Kyiv residential complexes, and old university friends from Bankova hold the perimeter; the bribery criminal case quietly gathers dust — because when you are “defending the state” along with the family fleet of Porsche and BMW, the laws of physics and justice politely pause. The story of the unsinkable ex-official is told in an investigation by NGL.media.
A lot changed in Andriy Balon’s life after the full-scale war began. The former head of the Kirovohrad RSA was mobilized, became an advisor to the mayor of Drohobych, a university lecturer, and engaged in charity. The only status that didn’t change was Balon’s — accused in a bribery case.
In 2020 he was detained on suspicion of demanding 1,8 million hryvnias. Six years have passed since then, and there is still no verdict. After mobilization, Balon almost stopped appearing at hearings, and in 2024 the court suspended the case because of his military service.
While the court process is on pause, Balon’s new life includes “Krylaty” — a company with his former driver as director, a trademark for strike drones, and 150 million hryvnias in annual revenue.
“Andriy Balon Huber Kirovohrad”
On 25 June 2020, Ihor Boichuk, head of the regional State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, approaches a car parked near the Kirovohrad RSA. In the driver’s seat of a Mercedes-Benz GL 350 sits Serhiy Shevchenko, head of the patronage service of the RSA head. Boichuk gets into the front seat and after a short conversation places a folder with 250 thousand hryvnias on the back seat.
This was already the second handover of money. The first 100 thousand hryvnias Boichuk gave Shevchenko three weeks earlier in the same car.
According to the investigation, the money was intended for then-head of the Kirovohrad RSA Andriy Balon. Boichuk was to pay it to keep his position.
Andriy Balon in 2020 (photo Kirovohrad RSA)
Who is Andriy Balon?
43-year-old Andriy Balon spent most of his professional life in the law enforcement system. He was born in the town of Stebnyk in the Lviv region. He earned his law degree at Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs.
He began his career in the Ministry of Internal Affairs as an investigator in Staryi Sambir, then as a senior investigator in Drohobych (2004–2010). For 2010–2011 years he headed several departments in Lviv region. In 2012–2015 he worked in MIA directorates in Zhytomyr and Poltava regions.
In 2015 he became a candidate of legal sciences and began teaching — first at Poltava Technical University, then at Kherson State University and Odesa University of the MIA.
In May 2017 then-head of Kherson RSA Andriy Hordieiev appointed Balon his deputy. After the elections in 2019 they both lost their posts, but in November 2019 the new president Zelensky appointed Balon head of the Kirovohrad RSA.
Later at an interrogation Ihor Boichuk said it all began in April 2020 in the reception office of the head of the Kirovohrad RSA. While he was waiting for an appointed meeting with Andriy Balon, Serhiy Shevchenko approached him and invited him to his office.
Shevchenko asked about the State Service’s work: how many markets, slaughterhouses, meat-processing plants there are in the region, what the grain export volumes are. Boichuk began to speak about fighting corruption in his agency. In response, as he recalled, Shevchenko said that “fighting corruption is very good” and asked if Boichuk wanted to “work on the team.”
At first, Boichuk said, he didn’t catch the hint. Then Shevchenko explained that if he wanted to stay “on the team,” he had to pass money through him for Balon. Shevchenko did not name amounts then; he only asked to prepare a report with performance indicators for the State Service.
After that conversation Boichuk met with Balon. At first he assumed the extortion might have been Shevchenko’s initiative. But Balon assured him that now he “sees the desire” of Boichuk to “work on the team” and advised him to heed Shevchenko, calling him his trusted person.
About a week later Shevchenko summoned Boichuk again. This time they discussed concrete sums — 3000 hryvnias from the heads of veterinary-sanitary laboratories at regional markets. There are 37 such laboratories in Kirovohrad region — so each month Boichuk had to bring 111 thousand hryvnias, or 1,33 million hryvnias per year.
On 22 May Boichuk came to Balon again. He asked what to do if law enforcement began asking “sharp” questions. According to Boichuk, Balon replied that in such a case he should immediately contact him or Shevchenko. Boichuk also recalled another phrase of the RSA head, saying large teams should “orient themselves to the commander.”
After speaking with Balon, Boichuk went to Shevchenko and showed him the laboratories’ financial indicators. In 2019 year they received almost 12 million hryvnias.
After that, the calculation scheme changed. Shevchenko explained it would not be fixed but “interesting for everyone.” It involved 15% of the laboratories’ turnover — that is 1,8 million hryvnias per year.
By that time Boichuk had already contacted law enforcement. Subsequent handovers of money took place under NABU control.
On 4 June detectives gave him 100 thousand hryvnias. Boichuk came to the RSA and handed them to Shevchenko in his car. Three weeks later Boichuk brought 250 thousand hryvnias, after which searches and arrests began.
Shevchenko and Balon were detained on 25 June. During a search of Balon’s office, 40 thousand hryvnias were found in the inner pocket of his jacket — and the serial numbers matched the money Boichuk had handed Shevchenko.
That same day, 25 June, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced Balon’s dismissal as head of the Kirovohrad RSA without explaining reasons. But within hours the reasons became clear when late that evening NABU reported the detention of the “head of one of the regional state administrations” and his accomplice on bribery.
250 thousand hryvnias that Ihor Boichuk handed to Serhiy Shevchenko under NABU supervision on 25 June 2020 (photo NABU)
On 26 June Andriy Balon was officially notified of suspicion, and the next day Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed him. Then VAKS set bail at 10 million hryvnias.
In court Andriy Balon denied guilt. He said that in the law enforcement protocol “only the first paragraph” about working relations with Boichuk is true.
He also insisted he didn’t have money for bail. However, less than a week later the bail was posted and he was released from pre-trial detention. 10 million hryvnias for him were paid by two Poltava businessmen.
“Andriy Classmate”
At the time of the search of his office, Andriy Balon was in Kyiv. At the hearing where his preventive measure was decided, he said he didn’t know what was happening in Kropyvnytskyi. At the same time, two messages from his seized phone were read in court, which show he almost immediately began seeking help at the President’s Office.
The first message was to Serhiy Trofimov. Balon wrote about the searches in his office and asked for help. The next was to Oleh Tatarov: “Friend, we need to meet urgently.”
Tatarov and Balon have known each other for a long time. They studied in the same course at Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs and graduated in 2003. It was Tatarov who in 2015 opposed Balon during his dissertation defense.
Other names from Balon’s dissertation appear among the current top echelon of the law enforcement system, people considered close to Oleh Tatarov. The commission that confirmed the practical use of the dissertation’s results included Maksym Tsutskiridze, who now serves as acting head of the National Police.
Maksym Tsutskiridze and Oleh Tatarov at the latter’s birthday celebration (photo Ukrainska Pravda)
By themselves Balon’s messages do not prove that Tatarov influenced his case after the arrest. However, in spring 2021 lawyers for Balon tried to remove his case from NABU’s jurisdiction. Almost immediately after the indictment was handed to the court, they petitioned the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv to change jurisdiction.
The Anti-Corruption Center called it an attempt to use the “Tatarov scheme.” That’s how the CAC described the practice of using Pechersk court decisions to transfer NABU cases to other law enforcement agencies — the SBU, the State Bureau of Investigation, or the National Police — where the investigation is stalled or closed. Similar moves happened in the cases of Judge Pavlo Vovk, the Dubnevych brothers, and Tatarov himself in the Ukrbud case.
The Ukrbud case and the “Tatarov scheme”
[In 2000 years the Main Directorate of Internal Troops of the MIA, later reorganized into the National Guard, transferred nearly a hectare of land in Pechersk, Kyiv, for development. The developer was to be Ukrbud of Maksym Mykytas. In exchange, the military were to receive part of the housing in the new building. The deal with the developer from 2015 mentioned 50 apartments and 30 parking spaces.
But in 2016–2017 the conditions changed. The National Guard and Ukrbud signed additional agreements: instead of apartments and parking in Pechersk, the military received 65 apartments near Chervonyi Khutir metro station on Kyiv’s outskirts. Formally there were more apartments, but according to the investigation their market value was 81,6 million hryvnias lower.
According to the investigation, in 2017 Oleh Tatarov, who then worked as a lawyer for Ukrbud, helped arrange a bribe for an MIA expert. That expert assessed the state’s losses from the apartment exchange. The bribe was a parking space worth 250 thousand hryvnias. In return the expert was to understate the state’s losses in his conclusion from 81 to 7 million hryvnias.
In 2020 Tatarov was notified of suspicion in that case. But shortly before the preventive measure hearing, thanks to a decision by Pechersk judge Serhiy Vovk and actions by the Prosecutor General’s Office, the case was taken from NABU and transferred to another agency. Later the proceedings against Tatarov were closed.
In Balon’s case they were not able to take the case away from NABU. A criminal proceeding that the defense opened against NABU detectives and SBU officers, alleging fabrication of the case, also did not help. The SBI found no criminal conduct in their actions.
On 28 April 2022 Balon was mobilized and stopped appearing at court hearings. In almost two years he arrived at court only once and regularly asked to postpone hearings due to military service.
Meanwhile the other accused in the case, Serhiy Shevchenko, struck a plea deal — in exchange for testimony against Balon. In August 2023 the court sentenced Shevchenko to three years probation and ordered him to transfer 2,5 million hryvnias to the army.
But Andriy Balon continued to ignore court sessions, so eventually in March 2024 the court suspended the proceedings in his case. The court concluded that Balon had no “technical means for remote participation,” and that in the area where his unit was performing combat tasks there were no necessary technical conditions. Thus, the court found he could not participate in hearings “neither in person nor remotely.”
But was that really so?
“Andriy Drohobych Mayor’s Advisor”
His lawyers explained Balon’s absence from hearings by saying he was performing combat tasks away from the permanent location of his military unit in Kyiv. But NGL.media found public traces of Balon in the first months after mobilization. They lead to Drohobych in Lviv region.
On 19 May 2022 a news item appeared on the Drohobych city council website about passing charitable aid to the city rescuers. In photos next to Mayor Taras Kuchma is Andriy Balon, presented as an advisor to the mayor. Although officially Balon was mobilized three weeks earlier, he appears in civilian clothes.
Andriy Balon (center) during the handover of equipment to Drohobych rescuers from donors; to his right is Drohobych mayor Taras Kuchma (photo DCM)
Four days later Balon is mentioned again on the city council site. On 23 May he took part in the opening of a tactical medicine course in nearby Stryi. Again as an advisor to the mayor of Drohobych. The Stryi city council also covered the event. Balon’s name is not mentioned in the text, but he appears in the published photo — again in civilian clothing.
Drohobych is not accidental in Balon’s biography. Early in his career he worked there as an investigator for six years. His parents and mother-in-law are registered in the city. His family owns an apartment there — among the property that VAKS arrested.
In July that year Balon is mentioned again on the Drohobych city council site — this time as head of the public organization “Recruit,” which was supposed to provide tactical medicine training and “military-patriotic education.” “Recruit” was created a week after Balon’s declared mobilization. Today the organization’s site and social pages are “dead.”
Balon’s public activity was not limited to Lviv region. In January 2023 he appeared in Vinnytsia during the dispatch of humanitarian aid to Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. A local outlet called him a representative of the charitable foundation “Ukrainian Foundation ‘Mriia’.” Balon told journalists he planned to continue cooperating in aid to the southern regions.
Viktor Broniuk from the band “TiK” and Andriy Balon deliver charity aid in Vinnytsia (photo “20 minutes Vinnytsia”)
In a conversation with NGL.media Andriy Balon claims he mobilized voluntarily and did not try to immediately use it to stop the criminal case. “I didn’t stop for two years, although I could have,” he said.
Balon says he was an unpaid advisor to the Drohobych mayor and worked on humanitarian issues and “preparing the population for resistance,” but that he left Drohobych immediately after mobilization. He cannot explain why he was mentioned in the city council news at least three times after that.
In response to an NGL.media request, the Drohobych city council reported that Andriy Balon was an unpaid advisor to the mayor on humanitarian matters from 25 February to 30 December 2022.
“Andriy Commander of Something”
On 1 May 2026 the rector of Kherson State Agrarian and Economic University (KSAEU) announced on social media that Andriy Balon was awarded the title of associate professor of the Department of Public Administration, Law, and Humanities. The decision is confirmed by the Ministry of Education order.
But Balon’s ties to Kherson University date back long before that. In the rector’s report for 2023 he is listed as a department employee who completed 180 hours of international internship on “European experience and global practices in higher education.”
KSAEU told NGL.media that on 2 October 2023 Balon was hired as an associate professor part-time at a quarter load. He taught three disciplines: theory of state and law, local self-government, and strategic management of local and regional programs.
At the same time, since early spring 2022 education at KSAEU has been conducted remotely. According to the university, that mode will remain “until the end of the legal regime of martial law.”
So at least since October 2023 Balon combined military service with remote teaching work. Yet he supposedly had no connection or technical ability even to join VAKS hearings remotely.
Balon himself sees no contradiction. In conversation with NGL.media he insists that teaching and research during military service are not prohibited.
“Andriy Krylaty”
The most interesting part of soldier Balon’s biography begins with the appearance of “Krylaty.”
At the start of 2023 Balon tells the media about opening a school for combat drone pilots called “Krylaty.” He promises classes in Kyiv, Poltava, and Lviv. He also says his “team” developed its own military UAV.
NGL.media checked the name “Krylaty” in the companies register. A month before the school’s public launch in Kyiv, LLC NVP “Krylaty” was registered. The sole founder with a 100% share was one Mykola Kolodych.
The first clue to his link to Andriy Balon was found in Kolodych’s wife’s declaration. It states that he worked at the Kirovohrad RSA. He also received a salary at LLC “Aptekar-Group,” co-owned by Ilona Balon — the wife of the RSA head. Leaked databases provided another detail — Kolodych’s number was saved by other users as “Kolya Driver” and “Kolya Driver Andriy’s.”
The Kirovohrad RSA confirmed to NGL.media that in 2019–2020 Mykola Kolodych worked there as a driver. It was during this period that Andriy Balon headed the RSA.
On 17 August 2020 VAKS allowed Andriy Balon to move from Kropyvnytskyi to Kyiv. On the same day Kolodych stopped working at the RSA. He and his family also moved to the capital. In Kolodych’s wife’s declaration for 2021 the rented Kyiv apartment is listed as belonging to Ilona Balon.
In July 2024 Ilona became the owner of NVP “Krylaty” replacing Mykola Kolodych. However, the former driver did not disappear from the business — he remains the company’s director.
In an interview with NGL.media Mykola Kolodych said he combines his role as director of NVP “Krylaty” with military service — allegedly an example to other entrepreneurs that “you can serve, work, and pay taxes.”
Kolodych initially denied knowing Balon, but after being reminded of his work as a driver at the Kirovohrad RSA he recalled: “We’re friends, we communicate. He serves, I serve.”
Andriy Balon also confirmed their relationship: “Mykola Kolodych is certainly not a random person in my life; I have responsibility for people who work with me.”
But what does the company owned by Balon’s wife and run by his former driver do?
According to YouControl, NVP “Krylaty” registered the trademark “Rubaka.” In the application on the UKRNOIVI site three classes of goods and services are indicated: vehicles and apparatus for movement on land, air, or water; weapons and ammunition; and advertising and business organization services.
At the end of July 2023 the name appears in open sources.
Blogger Vladyslav Shevchenko announces a fundraiser for a batch of new Ukrainian strike drones. In a published video, he supposedly celebrates his birthday alongside a “Rubaka” drone. “Friends, I received a request for 18 kamikaze ‘Rubaka’ drones from one of the GUR special units. We need to raise 10 million hryvnias,” the blogger said.
Ukrainian drone “Rubaka” (photo Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense)
One UAV cost about 550 thousand hryvnias. In the same video an unnamed Ukrainian GUR serviceman said “Rubakas” had already been used in combat. “Militarniy” wrote that the drone is manufactured by a classified Ukrainian defense company. Defense Express also reported the start of “Rubaka” production and said GUR units plan to use them.
Since Rubaka’s first public appearance, this drone has been mentioned specifically in connection with the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR). NGL.media could not find confirmation of its use by other Ukrainian security forces.
This matters for our story for one reason. According to SAP, in June 2024 Balon continued military service under contract. Both the unit to which he was mobilized in 2022 and the unit where he continued contract service belong to the GUR system.
NGL.media tried to clarify Balon’s role in developing, testing, or producing the Rubaka, but he declined, citing restrictions on disclosing information about defense goods.
He also did not answer whether he helped establish contacts between GUR units and Krylaty so the company could get orders.
Mykola Kolodych told NGL.media that NVP “Krylaty” manufactured the Rubaka, but for now these drones are “not being used.”
Meanwhile the company began earning. According to financial statements, last year Krylaty finished with revenue of over 155 million hryvnias — five times more than the year before. Net profit was 21,3 million hryvnias. Officially, the company had only seven employees.
Two premium cars are registered to the company — a Porsche Cayenne and a BMW i4, both 2024 model year.
Krylaty is not the only company linked to Mykola Kolodych. In May 2026 an LLC “AeroMavka” was registered in Kyiv — another manufacturer connected to drones. Initially the founder with a 100% share was Balon’s son, 20-year-old Matvii, but soon 50% was transferred to LLC “La Salutte.”
The director of AeroMavka, as with Krylaty, is Mykola Kolodych. Asked what the company does, he answers succinctly: “We manufacture, we protect the state.”
Other aviation-defense companies linked to the Balons
“Andriy Yurkivska”
Even before LLC NVP “Krylaty” appeared, a public organization “CP ‘Krylaty’” was registered by Mykola Kolodych. The chairman of the board was Anton Portnyi, one of Balon’s attorneys in the bribery case.
The public organization was registered in a Kyiv apartment owned by Ilona Balon and previously rented by the Kolodych couple.
This raises a question. After his dismissal as head of the Kirovohrad RSA in 2020, Balon obtained court permission to live in Kyiv and the region, with an obligation to regularly appear at VAKS hearings. We could not find other family housing in the capital. So where did Balon and his family live at that time?
At the same time, in December 2020 Balon’s mother-in-law Oksana Ozolina became the owner of a four-room apartment of 165 m2 in the center of Podil, Kyiv, worth about 300 thousand dollars (over 7 million hryvnias at the then exchange rate). But it’s unlikely Oksana Ozolina could afford such a purchase. According to NGL.media, since at least 2010 she has worked at the Drohobych city maternity hospital, and her total income in 2010–2020 years was about one million hryvnias.
On Getcontact, Andriy Balon’s personal number is labeled in several contacts with a reference to the street where this apartment is located. People usually label numbers that way when dealing with repairs or household issues related specifically to the apartment.
Andriy Balon declined to speak with NGL.media about this apartment.
Later housing in Kyiv appeared for his son as well. By August 2025 the then-19-year-old Matvii Balon’s cumulative income was just over 500 thousand hryvnias. He received this money from two companies linked to his family — NVP “Krylaty” and Aircraft Engineering.
In August 2025 Matvii Balon bought an apartment and parking space in the Herzen Park residential complex, one of Kyiv’s most expensive new developments. The price of a two-room apartment in Herzen Park starts from 7 million hryvnias, plus a parking space for 300–400 thousand hryvnias depending on size. In December last year Matvii also acquired a BMW i7 worth about 40 thousand dollars.
Andriy Balon himself did not register any Kyiv real estate in his name, and VAKS had already imposed an arrest on his wife’s property in 2020 as part of the criminal proceedings.
Author: Alona Malichenko
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "«Пауза» у ВАКС і бізнес на дронах: як живе ексголова Кіровоградщини Андрій Балонь після мобілізації". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
