Andriy Pavelko, the former president of the Football Federation of Ukraine, has been detained in Bratislava. This was announced by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Ruslan Kравченко, in his Telegram channel. Pavelko, who had been evading Ukrainian justice for years, became the target of an international manhunt and the result of effective cooperation between law enforcement agencies and foreign partners.
Money laundering scheme
According to the investigation, Pavelko organized a large-scale scheme to embezzle funds from the Football Federation of Ukraine. Through controlled commercial structures, almost 295 million hryvnias were withdrawn. As a result of these actions, the Federation and its regional centers suffered multimillion-dollar damages.
Extradition and background
The Office of the Prosecutor General has already initiated the extradition procedure for the detainee. Ruslan Kравченко has sent a corresponding letter to the competent authorities of the Slovak Republic.
Recall that at the end of 2025, the former head of the Ukrainian Association of Football was officially declared wanted. After Andriy Shevchenko was elected head of the UAF, an audit of the organization was announced. Preliminary results, published in April 2024, revealed an outflow of assets totaling more than 1.3 billion hryvnias during Andriy Pavelko's tenure.