The Brovary District Court of Kyiv oblast has dismissed the defamation lawsuit filed by former lawyer Oleh Horetsky against journalist Lyubov Velychko.
The ruling was passed on 11 September 2025, Lyubov Velychko tells the Institute of Mass Information.
Judge Natalya Pysanets said that the plaintiff had failed to prove that any information in the journalist’s Facebook post was false or defamatory. The court dismissed the lawsuit in full.
Earlier, the court tried the case on Horetskyi’s lawsuit against Velychko. The ex-attorney demanded a takedown of a Facebook post by Lyubov Velychko. The May 18, 2023 post details the NACB’s special operation to record a bribe in Horetskyi’s office: namely, a NACB agent installing covert listening devices in the office.
Horetskyi sued, claiming that the information reported by the journalist on social media regarding the covert listening device installed in his office by the NACB agent was false and defamatory. He believed Lyubov Velychko is guilty of causing damage to his business reputation.
During the 3 June 2025 trial in this case, Horetskyi attempted to take Velychko’s phone by force when she filmed the open hearing.
As Suspilne reported, on October 12, 2023, the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine convicted attorney Oleh Horetskyi, the accomplice of the former Supreme Court Chairman Vsevolod Knyazev, of receiving a bribe of $2.7 million. Horetsky was sentenced to five years in prison without confiscation of property. He was later released on parole with a probation period of three years.
Horetskyi is now an associate professor at the Vadym Hetman National University of Kyiv at the Department of Public and International Law.