The Ukrainian microcredit market has long been one of the most widespread and, at the same time, most controversial segments of the financial system. So, Miloan.
You can get several thousand hryvnias here in minutes—without collateral, proof of income, or lengthy credit checks. Companies offset the risks of this type of lending with high interest rates, and clients often find themselves having to take out new loans to pay off previous ones, UA NEWS reports.
Since the outbreak of full-scale war, this problem has also acquired a security dimension. People with large debts and a constant need for cash can become easy targets for Russian intelligence services, who are searching for perpetrators of arson, sabotage, and terrorist attacks behind Ukrainian lines. An investigation by Radio Liberty's "Schemes" project cites the example of a terrorist attack in Lviv in February 2026: according to the SBU, the perpetrator recruited by Russia had a loan debt of approximately 60 hryvnias.
That's why journalists decided to check whether large companies whose managers or owners may have ties to Russia remain on the Ukrainian microcredit market.
A new investigation centers on the microfinance company Miloan and the Blago pawnshop chain associated with its owner. Journalists have established that Russian citizen Ekaterina Tattersall, whose father holds a senior position at a Russian nuclear institute, is involved in managing the parent company of the Ukrainian business.
Meanwhile, the Russian pawnshop and microcredit business, previously owned by the family of Miloan owner Rodion Butko, was taken over by people who had long been associated with the family after the outbreak of the Great War. Part of this network continues to operate, particularly in Crimea.
Who owns the Ukrainian microfinance company Miloan?
Miloan has been operating in Ukraine for over ten years and is one of the largest players in the fast online lending market. According to data cited in the investigation, the company's revenue for 2025 was approximately 1,6 billion hryvnias, with net profit of approximately 65 million.
The company's ultimate owner is Ukrainian citizen Rodion Butko, currently registered and residing in Italy. He owns the Ukrainian business through several legal entities, including Bredley CH AG, registered in Switzerland. Butko himself chairs the board of directors of this company.
Until recently, Ekaterina Tattersall served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Bredley CH AG. She currently remains a board member and, according to corporate documents, continues to perform management functions.
The registration file for the Ukrainian company Miloan LLC, analyzed by journalists, indicates that Tattersall is directly involved in the execution of corporate decisions. Specifically, she countersigned the Ukrainian company's registration documents with her own signature as the authorized signatory on behalf of the Swiss company Bredley CH AG.
Russian passport of a member of the board of directors of Bradley CH AG
In official documents of Bredley CH AG, Ekaterina Tattersall appears as a Swiss citizen. However, journalists from "Schemes" claim that she also retains Russian citizenship.
Investigators found information about Tattersall's Russian passport in leaked Russian databases and then verified it through official Russian resources. According to journalists, Tattersall's passport is listed as valid on the Gosuslugi portal, and the Russian Federal Tax Service links this document to her Russian tax identification number.
Investigators also established that Ekaterina Tattersall visited Russia after the full-scale invasion began. In August 2022, she flew to St. Petersburg from Istanbul using a Russian passport issued in January 2021.
The mere fact that a person involved in managing the ownership structure of a Ukrainian financial company holds Russian citizenship may have legal significance. According to the National Bank's criteria, citizenship of an aggressor state may be a sign of a less-than-perfect business reputation.
If the NBU finds Kateryna Tattersall's reputation to be less than spotless, the assessment could extend to Bredley CH AG, where she serves on the board. The next link could be Miloan LLC, which is owned by a Swiss company. Under Ukrainian law, reputational issues with the owners or management of a financial institution may result in sanctions, including license revocation.
Miloan. Ekaterina Tattersall's father works at a Russian nuclear institute.
Journalists paid special attention to the family ties of Ekaterina Tattersall, who bore the surname Baranova before her marriage.
Her father, Igor Baranov, lives in St. Petersburg. Journalists traced the connection between them, in particular, through Russian online services: Tattersall used her father's phone number to register on several websites.
Igor Baranov
Baranov works as an assistant to the director of the St. Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics. This institution is part of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute," one of Russia's key scientific institutions.
According to the investigation, the Kurchatov Institute is involved in developments used by the Russian military-industrial complex. Specifically, this concerns navigation systems for the Kh-101 cruise missiles and Iskander missile systems, which Russia uses to strike Ukraine. The institute is subject to sanctions by both Ukraine and the United States.
The center is headed by Mikhail Kovalchuk. Russian and international media have described him and his brother, Yuri Kovalchuk, as members of Vladimir Putin's inner circle. Kovalchuk himself has publicly proposed nuclear weapons testing to demonstrate Russia's strength and intimidate Western countries.
At the same time, family ties alone do not prove Ekaterina Tattersall's involvement in the activities of her father or Russian government agencies. For the Ukrainian regulator, the key issue is not the professional activities of her relatives, but rather her current Russian citizenship, Tattersall's role in the governing bodies of Bredley CH AG, and her involvement in the management of the entity that owns the Ukrainian financial company.
The Blago pawnshop chain and the Butko family's business
In addition to Miloan, Rodion Butko owns the Blago pawnshop chain in Ukraine. According to the chain's official website, it has nearly 200 branches in 84 Ukrainian cities and serves over three million customers.
Until October 2022, the majority owner of the Ukrainian pawnshop business was Rodion Butko's father, Anatoliy Butko. Control was exercised through several foreign companies, including the Cypriot BLG Aurum Limited.
The family developed a pawnshop business not only in Ukraine but also in Russia. BLG Aurum Limited also owned the Russian company Blago Kredit LLC, which operated under the Liga brand.
The Cypriot company only disowned the Russian business in August 2023—approximately a year and a half after the full-scale invasion began. The new owner was Vladimir Dubrovsky, a citizen of Russia and Ukraine.
The identity of the new owner became one of the main arguments used by journalists who questioned the Butko family's complete severance of ties to Russian assets.
A longtime family business partner has become the owner of a company in Russia.
Vladimir Dubrovsky worked for many years in companies associated with Rodion and Anatoly Butko.
Vladimir Dubrovsky
From 2010, he headed the Ukrainian company Progress RL, which was then owned by the Butko family, for approximately 12 years. Dubrovsky and Anatoly Butko were co-founders of another company, Bereg-Industry, from its inception in 2010 until March 2023.
Dubrovsky also had ties to Miloan. In 2017, he represented the company's then-foreign owner and signed the updated charter of Miloan LLC.
Journalists also found informal evidence of Dubrovsky's acquaintance with Rodion Butko—in particular, a joint photograph taken during a hunting trip in Bulgaria.
Another connection can be traced through family. According to leaked Russian databases from 2023, Rodion Butko's wife, Alena, who holds Russian citizenship, and Vladimir Dubrovsky listed the same registered address—an apartment on the outskirts of Moscow.
These circumstances do not automatically prove that Rodion Butko continues to control Russian companies. However, they have prompted journalists to ask whether the asset transfer was real and final, or whether the businesses were formally transferred to members of the family's long-standing circle.
Miloan. Russian pawnshops continue operations after new owners.
Vladimir Dubrovsky remained a co-owner of Blago Kredit LLC until at least October 2025. The stake was later transferred to Russian citizen Nikolai Korobkov, who had worked at the same company as the head of the development department since 2019—back when Rodion Butko's father owned the business.
In May 2026, the company was re-registered to Kyrgyz citizen Mukhammed Sulaimanov, whom journalists do not directly link to Butko's business.
However, after examining the Russian corporate structure, Skhemy discovered that the network's operations are currently carried out through another legal entity: Lombard League Credit LLC.
Vladimir Dubrovsky registered this company in Moscow in April 2022, when he was still a co-founder of the Ukrainian company with Rodion Butko. Currently, Lombard Liga Credit owns the Liga chain's trademarks and operates under this brand.
The Russian chain's official website states that it also operates in the occupied Ukrainian territories. Specifically, the company has nearly 30 branches in Crimea.
Thus, the business, previously owned by the family of the Ukrainian owner of Miloan and Blago, continues to operate in Russia and the occupied peninsula, although its formal owners have changed hands.
How the owners of the Russian microcredit business have changed
The Butko family developed not only pawnshops in Russia, but also a fast-track lending business.
Unsecured consumer loans to Liga network clients are issued by Trust Alliance LLC. For a long time, this company was owned by the same Cypriot BLG Aurum Limited through which Anatoly Butko controlled the pawnshop business.
In August 2023, Vladimir Dubrovsky became the owner of Trust Alliance. In April 2026, the company was re-registered to Vladimir Shcherbina.
Journalists have established that Shcherbina is Dubrovsky's wife's father, making him his father-in-law. Border crossing records also indicate that in June 2023, both men flew together with their family members.
Thus, after the departure of the Butkov family structures, the owners of Russian financial companies were not random investors, but people who had had business or family ties with them for years.
What did Rodion Butko's company respond to?
Journalists approached Rodion Butko with questions about his possible continued control over Russian pawnshops and microfinance companies. They also asked whether he knew of Ekaterina Tattersall's Russian citizenship and why assets linked to his family in Russia were transferred to Vladimir Dubrovsky and other individuals he knew.
A response came from the Swiss company Bredley CH AG. The company denied that Rodion Butko or his entities are involved in the management of legal entities in Russia or receive income from them.
Representatives of Bredley CH AG stated that information suggesting otherwise is "false" and "far-fetched." At the same time, the company did not provide a substantive explanation for the connections uncovered by journalists between the Butko family and the new owners of the Russian assets.
Questions about Ekaterina Tattersall's Russian citizenship and her trip to Russia after the start of the full-scale war also remained unanswered.
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Bradley CH AG explained its refusal to provide detailed answers by its reluctance to allow individual phrases to be taken out of context.
At the time of writing, Ekaterina Tattersall, Vladimir Dubrovsky, and Vladimir Shcherbina also had not responded to journalists' inquiries. Skhemy stated that they were prepared to publish their positions upon receiving comments.
Miloan. The National Bank is investigating Rodion Butko's business.
In June 2026, the National Bank of Ukraine tightened requirements for the business reputation of owners and managers of non-bank financial institutions.
According to the updated rules, if a company or its owners exert influence over the management of legal entities registered in an aggressor country, their business reputation may be deemed questionable. For a financial institution, this could lead to sanctions, including license revocation.
"Schemes" provided the National Bank with information gathered during the investigation. In response, the regulator stated that it was already analyzing changes in the ownership structure of Russian assets previously owned by Rodion Butko.
The investigation is being conducted in collaboration with special and law enforcement agencies. The NBU is attempting to establish whether Butko retained influence over the management of Russian companies, the nature of this influence, and the circumstances under which the assets were disposed of.
The National Bank emphasized that if ties to Russia and signs of a less-than-perfect business reputation are officially confirmed, the regulator will have legal grounds to impose sanctions on the companies.
In particular, this concerns the possible revocation of licenses for the financial company and pawnshop.
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