Ukrainian Association of Football ex-president Pavelko detained in Slovakia
Andrii Pavelko, the former president of the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF), has been detained in Slovakia. Preparations are underway for his extradition to Ukraine. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko announced this on his Facebook page on Friday, July 24.
Kravchenko noted that Pavelko was detained in Bratislava thanks to an international arrest warrant and effective cooperation with foreign partners.
"According to the investigation, he organized a scheme to siphon off nearly UAH 295 million from the Federation through commercial entities under his control. To do this, fictitious contracts were drawn up for the supply of seafood, premium teas, coffee, and electrical equipment—all of which existed only on paper. The money was siphoned off, and the Ukrainian Football Federation and its regional branches suffered losses amounting to millions," Kravchenko noted.
According to him, the Prosecutor General's Office has already initiated extradition proceedings.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on December 26, 2025, the Security Service issued a warrant for the arrest of former UAF president Andrii Pavelko.
In December 2025, former UAF president Pavelko fled abroad by falsely claiming to be disabled.
On January 25, 2024, Andrii Shevchenko replaced Andrii Pavelko as the president of the UAF; Pavelko was then being held in pretrial detention in connection with a corruption case involving the construction of a factory to manufacture artificial turf for soccer fields. Another figure implicated in the case is the organization’s former secretary general, Yurii Zapisotskyi.
As a reminder, Pavelko and UAF secretary general Yurii Zapisotskyi are suspected of embezzling UAH 26.5 million.