It's official: “Dnipro-1” has been declared bankrupt due to a debt of nearly 340 million hryvnias

“Dnipro-1” has officially ceased to exist.

On April 23, the Commercial Court of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast declared “Dnipro-1” bankrupt; just three years ago, the club was the runner-up in the Ukrainian Premier League. This was reported on the Supreme Court’s website.

The bankruptcy proceedings were initiated by Shakhtar, to whom Dnipro-1 failed to pay for the transfer of Oleksandr Pikhalonok to Dynamo in the summer of 2024.

Pikhalonok, a product of Shakhtar’s youth system, was unable to secure a spot on his home team’s roster and signed a contract with FC Dnipro-1 in 2021. Under the terms of the transfer, Dnipro-1 agreed to pay Shakhtar 20% of any compensation it receives from selling the player to his next club.

The debt arose when Dnipro-1 signed a contract to transfer Pikhalonok to Dynamo for 96.7 million UAH ($2.4 million). FC Shakhtar claimed that it was entitled to 20% of this amount and filed a petition with the court for Dnipro-1’s bankruptcy to recover the debt. The court recognized the club’s claims in the amount of 21.08 million UAH.

However, the largest creditor of SC “Dnipro-1,” with a claim of 307.62 million UAH, turned out to be the financial company “Lemuria,” which purchased Dnipro-1’s debts to the company “Livine Torg.” Between 2018 and 2021, four agreements were signed between LLC “Levin Torg” and SC “Dnipro-1” for the provision of interest-free but repayable financial assistance. In April and June 2025, Levin Torg LLC transferred the right to claim these funds from Dnipro-1 to a new creditor—Lemuria FC LLC.

As a reminder, Dnipro-1 spent five seasons in the Ukrainian Premier League from 2019 to 2024 and was disbanded in June 2024 due to financial problems. The club was the silver medalist of the 2022–2023 Ukrainian Championship and the bronze medalist in the 2021–2022 season.