The Volyn Court of Appeal upheld the verdict by the first instance court, which ruled that the Volyn Online chief editor Maryana Metelska must pay the Technotorg corporation UAH 50,000 (UAH 10,000 to each bompany) and retract 10 points in her investigation.
The court passed the verdict 30 September 2025, upholding the earlier ruling by the Horokhiv District Court of Volyn oblast from 2 July 2025, Maryana Metelska reported to Maya Holub, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Volyn oblast.
As reported earlier, on 5 July 2025 the Horokhiv District Court of Volyn oblast granted the lawsuit by Technotorg against Maryana Metelska, ordering her to retract ten points from her investigation “‘Leftover’ Russian spare details available for sale: a company affiliated with the aggressor operates near Lutsk”. The journalist is to pay 10 000 hryvnias to each of the following companies: Technotorg, Technotorg-Don, Technotorg-Auto, Lany Pivdnya, Technotorg-Agro, in addition to the court fees.
Both Metelska and Technotorg filed appeals following that ruling.
According to Maryana Metelska, Technotorg filed an appeal because they disagreed with the Horokhiv District Court’s decision that she should pay them UAH 50,000: the corporation wanted UAH 750,000.
“I will file a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court. I have 30 days to do this. I have to comply with the court ruling regardless of whether there will be a cassation appeal, otherwise my bank accounts will be blocked. If I fail to pay, the bailiff service will block my accounts. At the moment, I do not have any document saying what is the payment deadline,” Maryana Metelska told the IMI representative.
The journalist stressed that she had only used open sources such as court registers, YouControl, and public court rulings in her investigation. She said that it was information from these sources that became the subject of Technotorg’s claims.