Businessman Andriy Andreychikov, owner of the company "Balker", which annually receives hundreds of millions in revenue from scrap metal trade and cooperates with the largest Ukrainian metallurgical groups, found himself at the center of a scandal due to his ties to Russian-controlled Transnistria and individuals involved in separatist activities.
Journalists found that in 2015–2018, Balker exported more than 60,000 tons of scrap metal to the Moldovan Metallurgical Plant in the city of Rybnitsa, which is controlled by the unrecognized Transnistria. The value of these supplies amounted to about UAH 380 million.
The company "Balker" is registered in Kropyvnytskyi, but actually operates in Kyiv on the territory of the river port. Andreychikov himself lives in Odessa. According to the state register, for 2024 alone, the company declared UAH 1.5 billion in revenue, and for the first two quarters of 2025 - over UAH 825 million. Its partners are ArcelorMittal, Dniprospetsstal, Viktor Pinchuk's Interpipe, and Rinat Akhmetov's Metinvest.
At the same time, Andreychikov has controversial former partners. He was a co-founder of Myslivets-2007 LLC together with Dmitry Cherep and Sergey Kushnir. Cherep was convicted in 2015 of attempting to organize a coup in Odessa with the help of militants of the “DPR” and “LPR”. Kushnir headed the Odessa branch of the pro-Russian party “Rodina”. After journalistic investigations in 2019, Andreychikov left the founders of this company.
In 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers even approved his appointment as head of the Odessa Regional State Administration, but after protests and revelations, the appointment did not take place. The businessman himself then disappeared from the public space without giving any comments.
Andreychikov was born in Riga, spent his childhood in Rybnitsa (Transnistria), and later moved to Odessa. In the 1990s, he worked as a director at local companies Ferko, Nels, and Vtorresursy. In 2003, he founded Balker.
The businessman's declaration indicates significant assets: several apartments and non-residential premises in Odessa, six cars, a boat and jewelry. The Andreychikovs kept more than $110,000 from the husband and $26,000 from the wife. His wife, Olena Andreychikova, is known as a writer and author of several books.
Analysts note that the story of "Balker" is yet another confirmation of the close intertwining of business with politics and the criminal world in the Ukrainian scrap metal market, which has been under the control of influential groups for decades.
