Former president of the Ukrainian Association of Football (formerly FFU), who was on the international wanted list for a long time hiding from justice, has been detained in Bratislava, and extradition procedures have been initiated, reported Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Kravchenko.
"A former high-ranking official of the Football Federation of Ukraine has been detained in Slovakia. He spent years hiding from Ukrainian justice. However, international wanted notices and effective cooperation with foreign partners yielded results," he wrote on Telegram on Friday.
According to agency sources in law enforcement, this refers to former UAF president Andriy Pavelko, who is suspected of large-scale corruption.
According to the investigation, he organized a scheme to siphon nearly UAH 295 million from the Federation’s funds through controlled commercial entities. For this purpose, fictitious contracts were concluded for the supply of seafood, elite varieties of tea, coffee, and electrical equipment, which existed only on paper. The funds were siphoned off, resulting in multi-million losses for the Football Federation of Ukraine and its regional branches.
"The Office of the Prosecutor General has already initiated the extradition process. I have sent a letter to the competent authorities of the Slovak Republic declaring the intention to request the extradition of this individual, as well as the application of provisional arrest," Kravchenko reported.
According to him, this detention is the result of professional interaction between Ukrainian law enforcement officers and the competent authorities of the Slovak Republic, alongside the effective use of international legal cooperation mechanisms. "We will continue to return to Ukraine those who spent years believing they could hide from the law abroad," the Prosecutor General emphasized.
