Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) have been conducting searches since morning at the co-owner of the Babel online outlet, owner of the Ukrainian drone manufacturing company Vyriy Industries Oleksiy Babenko, his brother, mother, and at the company itself, Babel Editor-in-Chief Kateryna Kobernyk reported.
"In the morning, the SBI came with searches to the owner of Vyriy Industries and co-owner of Babel Oleksiy Babenko, his brother, mother, and to the company. According to our information, he is suspected of overpricing drones, fictitious contracts, etc. At home, they found $3,500 and seized all information from his phone," she wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
The SBI confirmed to the Interfax-Ukraine agency the fact of conducting searches, without specifying details.
As Kobernyk noted, "it is too early to say anything on the merits of the case – we need to see at least some documents, but I will say one thing. In recent weeks, I have seen a fantastic amount of smear campaigns and paid stories about Babenko on old and new trash websites specially created for someone."
According to her, Babenko was called the mastermind behind Babel's investigation into the deaths of servicemen in the 425th separate assault regiment Skelya.
"They wrote that he encroached on state security, is at war with the state and the General Staff. (...) Literally a couple of days ago, there even appeared a report that searches were underway at Oleksiy's home and investigators seized $5 million. ...back then it was a fake." Kobernyk also expressed "surprise" at the allegations of overpricing drones: "because anyone even slightly connected to this market knows that Vyriy's prices are actually among the cheapest."
"Given the huge pressure that the editorial office has been feeling after the publication of the investigation into Skelya, this news, to put it mildly, leads us to very bad conclusions. I can only say that the accusations against Babenko will change nothing in our work in general, and with this topic in particular," the editor-in-chief of Babel emphasized.
Vyriy Industries (or Vyriy, drone manufacturer Vyriy) is a Ukrainian defense tech company and one of the largest manufacturers of FPV drones and components for them. The owner and head of Vyriy Industries is Oleksiy Babenko.
As reported, Babel published an investigation into the 425th separate assault regiment Skelya. In particular, according to the publication, from the end of 2025 to the spring of 2026, at least 26 people died among the recruits of the 425th separate assault regiment Skelya, and these are deaths not resulting from combat operations. Relatives of some of the deceased claim untimely medical assistance and possible violence.
