Vynohradiv District Court in Zakarpattia oblast has granted a petition by journalist Olena Mudra to declare the reports about her published as part of a smear campaign false, and has ordered them to be retracted. The reports in question were posted by anonymous websites, which accused the journalist of working for Russia, training at an FSB centre, and receiving funding from dubious sources, the NGO Human Rights Platform reported in a Facebook post.
The campaign to discredit the media professional began after her investigation into the construction of several villas in the Carpathians. Since the content was published by anonymous platforms, the Human Rights Platform’s media lawyers chose a defence strategy that relies on establishing the legal fact that the information was false.
The case was handled by attorney Yuriy Melnyk, with involvement by lawyers Olha Vdovenko and Liudmyla Huseinova.
“Today’s court win is another stage in the systematic defence of the journalist’s rights. The Human Rights Platform will continue to support media workers and defend freedom of speech in Ukraine,” the organisation remarked.
Olena Mudra called the ruling an important victory for her, saying that collecting and organising the evidence and preparing material for the lawyers and attorneys was a considerable investment of time and mental resources.
“For me personally, this is a very important victory. I had to invest a lot of resources, time as well as mental energy, in collecting evidence of the attacks, organising it, and preparing it to hand over to the lawyers and attorneys. I had to keep combing the web for new posts, read or watch them, and document what formed the basis of the statement of claim,” the journalist wrote in a Facebook post.
She is now awaiting the full text of the court ruling. At the same time, she said, another similar case is being tried already.
The Institute of Mass Information has reached out to Olena Mudra for further comment.
Previously
On 9 June 2025, Zakarpattia-based investigator journalist Olena Mudra said she was being targeted in a smear campaign in the media. She believes the campaign was triggered by her reporting. She said that several disreputable media outlets had published a deceptive article with false information about her sources of income (alleging she works for Russia and Russian money) and her family.
Olena believes that these incidents are connected with her investigations into the work of LLC Wind Parks Ukraine in Zakarpattia oblast.
Olena Mudra filed a police statement on obstruction of her lawful reporting and violation of her privacy on 27 June 2025. The data was entered into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations (URPTI) on the following day, 28 June.
On 24 February 2026, NGL.media team collected clues that could lead to the persons responsible for the large-scale smear campaign targeting the Zakarpattia-based investigative journalist Olena Mudra, who reported on the potentially illegal wind power plant construction in the Runa valley.
On 14 May 2026, the police closed the proceedings against Zakarpattia-based journalist Olena Mudra, triggered by a letter signed “Marik Fedirko”.
On 22 July 2026, the Vynohradiv District Court in Zakarpattia oblast opened proceedings on a motion filed by journalist Olena Mudra, who sought to have the claims about her promoted as part of a coordinated online campaign declared false
Later, the journalist’s lawyer Yuriy Melnyk explained that prosecuting the people behind the coordinated smear campaign against the Zakarpattia-based journalist Olena Mudra is difficult due to the anonymity of the online resources involved.
In August 2026, the police closed two proceedings under Articles 171 (obstruction of lawful reporting) and 182 (violation of privacy) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which concerned online harassment of journalist Olena Mudra, citing “absence of a corpus delicti” as the reason.