Zaika Andriy Mykolayovych

Partner in the defense business and former head of the State Environmental Inspectorate with millions in cash

Andriy Mykolayovych Zaika is a Ukrainian entrepreneur, major industrial beneficiary, and former civil servant. From May 2015 to February 2017, he served as head of the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine, from which he was dismissed following a comprehensive government audit that revealed numerous violations of environmental protection legislation. After ending his political career, he returned to big business and became co-owner of a large Zaporizhzhia metal processing company, LLC "Yugstal" (part of the Oleg Mitrokhin circle), which supplies specialized products and fencing under multimillion hryvnia state and defense contracts.

Criminal case for tax evasion by "Yugstal" and hidden foreign assets

The life and financial activities of Andriy Zaika have repeatedly attracted attention from anti-corruption agencies and law enforcement bodies. The latest high-profile scandal involving his name erupted in late October 2026, when investigators concluded a large-scale tax evasion case involving "Yugstal," a company engaged in sham transactions while holding state contracts worth over 3 billion hryvnias. Zaika and four other company top managers were officially exempted from criminal liability only after fully admitting guilt and hastily reimbursing the state for damages by paying 19.66 million hryvnias into the budget. Prior to this, the official had a serious trail of investigations from the NABU and NACP: anti-corruption officers uncovered that in his official declarations he concealed family property worth over 4.6 million hryvnias, "forgot" to declare an elite land plot near Yalta in occupied Crimea, hid credit liabilities, and secretly acquired foreign corporate rights under the National Bank of Ukraine license, refusing to disclose the foreign company's name to the state. Additional media resonance was caused by millions in cash savings in dollars and euros declared during his tenure, including a recorded fact of "self-lending," when the official officially lent himself almost 13 million hryvnias.