The Best Premier League Referee of Last Season Appointed for Dynamo — LNZ Match, Already Recorded One Victory for Kyiv This Seas

The UAF Referee Committee has appointed a team of referees for the 12th round of the Ukrainian Championship match between Kyiv’s Dynamo and Cherkasy’s LNZ, which will take place next Sunday, November 9, at Dynamo Stadium in Kyiv (kickoff at 15:30).

Mykola Balakin

The field referee will be Mykola Balakin from the Kyiv region. This season, he has already officiated one match involving Dynamo — against Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih (4:0) in the previous round of the Premier League. In the 2024/25 season, there were four such encounters in Balakin’s record (Ukrainian Championship: Dynamo — Kryvbas — 2:1, Dynamo — Shakhtar — 1:1, Kryvbas — Dynamo — 0:2; Ukrainian Cup final: Shakhtar — Dynamo — 1:1, penalties — 6:5).

It’s also worth noting that Balakin was recognized as the best referee of last season’s Ukrainian Championship.

The line referees for the Dynamo — LNZ match will be Oleksandr Berkut (Sumy) and Volodymyr Vysotskyi (Zaporizhzhia). The fourth referee will be Andriy Zaitsev (Donetsk region).

The upcoming meeting will also feature the VAR referee assistance system, led by Denys Shurman from the Kyiv region.