Court dismisses Kryukova's lawsuit against Lachenkov

Ihor Lachenkov. Photo by Ihor Lachenkov on Facebook

The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv dismissed the lawsuit filed by Svitlana Kryukova, a journalist for the sanctioned pro-Russian media outlet Strana.ua, against blogger and volunteer Ihor Lachenkov.

Ihor Lachenkov announced this on Telegram.

"The judges of the Pechersk Court dismissed Sveta Kryukova's lawsuit against me and left Kryukova's against the lawyer Yevhen Pronin without consideration. They may resubmit it, we will keep our watch and give you updates," he wrote.

At the same time, the court scheduled a trial in Kryukova's lawsuit against the soldier and volunteer Roman Sinitsyn. The hearing will take place on October 30 at 11:30.

In both cases, the case concerns defamation.

As the IMI reported, on July 23, 2024, a petition asking to completely block the pro-Russian media outlet strana.ua and introduce sanctions against its employees, including Svitlana Kryukova, was posted on the President's website.

The petition received the necessary 25,000 signatures and is already being reviewed by the President.

Ihor Lachenkov encouraged his followers to sign this petition.

Svitlana Kryukova is a pro-Russian journalist, former first deputy chief editor of the pro-Russian website Strana.ua. She was a frequent guest at Medvedchuk's TV channels "Nash" and NewsOne, where she promoted Russian propaganda, notes the "Chesno" Movement. The National Agency for Corruption Prevention and the "Chesno" Movement have added Svitlana Kryukova into the high traitors register.

The Institute of Mass Information collected their previously published research findings related to the work of Strana and evidence that this media outlet has always worked to smear Ukraine.

Sanctions against Strana.ua

On August 21, 2021, Volodymyr Zelenskyi signed into effect the decree by the National Security and Defense Council to impose sanctions against the Strana.ua chief editor Ihor Huzhva. Alla Bondarenko, Halyna Solntseva, and Lyubov Lukashyna were also included in the list. The latter two are affiliated with Ihor Huzhva. His wife Halyna Solntseva is the owner of Strana.ua's parent company, the LLC "Lasmak". This media outlet was banned.

On February 16, 2022, Zelenskyi expanded the sanctions against Ihor Huzhva to his websites strana.ua, strana.news, strana.one, strana.digital, strana.today and "other web resources that provide access to the portal Strana.ua," as well as the outlet's pages on Facebook, Vkontakte, and Odnoklassniki.

In March 2022, the Verkhovna Rada accused "Strana.ua" of enabling the Russian troops to aim their fire by posting the exact addresses of the objects hit by Russian missiles on Telegram.

In September 2022, a petition to ensure a proper ban and complete termination of cooperation between state bodies and the pro-Russian media outlet Strana.ua was posted on the President's website. The petition gathered the necessary 25,000 signatures and Volodymyr Zelenskyi asked the Secretary of the National Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov, to consider it.