The Kharkiv Court of Appeal ordered Zmiyiv Mayor Pavlo Holodnikov to compensate moral damage to Media-Zmiyiv journalist Anastasia Istomina, overturning the earlier Zmiyiv District Court ruling. The verdict was passed on 18 November 2025, Media-Zmiyiv reports.
The incident occurred on 4 November 2023, when the mayor told journalist Anastasia Istomina, who was reporting during a public event, “Stop following me around like a dog and filming s**t on that camera.”
The news outlet writes that in June 2024 the Zmiyiv District Court dismissed the journalist’s claim for protection of honor, dignity, and business reputation, effectively ruling that the statement was not legally humiliating the journalist.
On 18 November, the Court of Appeal overturned the first instance court’s ruling and granted the journalist’s claim in part.
The court ruled to recover UAH 2,684 in moral damages from Pavlo Holodnikov. The verdict will come into force in a month and may be appealed in cassation.
The news outlet writes that the journalist decided to donate the money received as compensation for moral damages to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Anastasia Istomina told Suspilne that she was satisfied with the court’s ruling.
“The court finally recognised that the mayor’s statements were unacceptable and humiliating. All this money will be donated to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, where they are needed most right now. I hope that the ruling will be a lesson to our mayor and other officials, teaching them that they can not treat people like this, especially journalists. This is a case that dragged on for quite a while,” said Istomina.
She added that Holodnikov was also expected to cover the legal fees – more than 9 thousand hryvnias.
The journalist added that the mayor did not contact her to discuss the case or apologize.
She noted that there had been no conflict between them: “He was arguing with the crowd, I think I just caught heat. He never agreed to a settlement in the first instance court, no apologies, absolutely nothing.”
In turn, Pavlo Holodnikov told the news outlet that he had not yet read the court’s verdict.
“I advise you read the first instance ruling. Because this is an appeal, it will be followed by cassation. So my question is: why are you paying so much attention to the intermediate instance while disregarding the the first instance ruling and failing to mention that there will be a cassation motion?” said Holodnikov.
When asked by a Suspilne journalist whether he was going to the cassation court, he replied, “I have not seen the verdict yet. If the ruling suits me, we do not go anywhere. If not, then, of course, we go to the cassation court.”
The mayor himself believes that there was no incident with the journalist.