Former Defense Ministry official Roman Balykin has become a subject of an investigation into alleged embezzlement of budget funds during the construction of the Shyroky Lan military training ground in Mykolaiv Oblast. The case is already being considered by the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court, and the connections between contractors, the former official's family, and fictitious jobs indicate a well-organized scheme.
In 2016, the Ministry of Defense signed a contract with Rost LLC for 232 million hryvnias for the construction of military infrastructure at the training ground. The work was accepted in full, despite the fact that a significant part of it was never completed. According to the investigation, the budget losses amount to at least 37 million hryvnias.
At the time of signing the agreement, Rost belonged to Dmitry Pashkovsky and the companies E-pos and Stolytsia — the latter was founded by a Russian citizen at the time, and later came under the control of the same Pashkovsky.
The actual construction work at the landfill, according to investigators, was carried out by another structure — LLC “ATL Autoservice”, which was founded in 2016 by Roman Balykin’s son — Dmitry, together with the same Dmitry Pashkovsky. At the same time, the company “TLA Kyiv”, which appears in the ownership structure of “E-pos”, later passed to Oksana Balykina — presumably the wife of the former official.
Thus, the project worth hundreds of millions turned out to be a closed corporate scheme involving relatives and related legal entities.
There is another revealing detail in the case: Dmytro Pashkovsky is not only the founder of the companies that won the state order, but also Roman Balykin’s lawyer. His law firm is registered at 36 Symyrenko Street in Kyiv — the same address where most of the companies that are part of the ATL structure are registered.
The trial has been ongoing since 2020. Initially, Balikin was set bail at UAH 2.1 million, which was later reduced to UAH 780,000. In 2023, he founded a new company, BMC Ukraine, which produces cars, parts, and weapons.
