Dmytro Borzykh, former Deputy Prosecutor General for Military Prosecution, has filed a claim with Kyiv’s Pecherskyi District Court against ZN.UA and the website’s domestic politics editor Inna Vedernikova. Borzykh is seeking to declare information reported in the 22 April 2025 investigation “The Hacker Lawyers Case: How NABU Exposed the Parasites” (which concerned the so-called “Borzykh group”) and in several subsequent articles false, ZN.UA reports.
According to the outlet, some of Borzykh’s claims relate to him being mentioned as a suspect in the case prior to the conviction taking legal effect. He is also seeking to recover almost 500,000 hryvnias in legal costs from the defendants, of which 300,000 hryvnias are legal assistance fees.
The first hearing in the case is scheduled for 10 August.
The ZN.UA investigation concerned a case wherein NABU issued suspicion notices to three lawyers with the company Harantiya Vashykh Prav (lit. “your rights guaranteed”), including Dmytro Borzykh. According to NABU, they had obtained unauthorised access to the case files of at least 100 criminal law proceedings, including around 30 NABU cases involving high-profile corruption.
While the investigation was in progress, ZN.UA lawyers reached out to NABU, who confirmed that Dmytro Borzykh had been assigned a suspect in criminal law proceedings No. 52023000000000620.
Lawyer Yevhen Vorobyov, who represents ZN.UA in the case, believes the claim bears the hallmarks of a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), while Iryna Venediktova’s legal representative Roman Vasylniak has pointed out that the parties to the proceedings are on unequal footing.
The judge assigned to the case via automated case distribution system was replaced once at the plaintiff’s request and two more recused themselves until only two judges remained eligible for the case, suggesting a deliberate scheme to get a “convenient” judge assigned. ZN.UA has reported that Ruslan Kozlov, chairman of the Pecherskyi District Court, is the godfather to Borzykh’s child.
ZN.UA stresses that in their opinion, the lawsuit concerns the media’s right to cover socially important criminal law proceedings and the public’s right to know who is suspected of what in high-profile corruption cases.
The team believes that the current law, which prohibits the media to report a suspect or defendant’s name prior to convicion taking effect without the person’s consent, goes against the European press freedom standards. ZN.UA is convinced that if the media are not allowed to mention people implicated in corruption cases by name, society will have considerably fewer opportunities to oversee anti-corruption efforts.
“A tool is being created at the state level to allow persons impicated in top corruption cases to escape justice. This is not just ZN.UA’s problem. This concerns the entire media community and society,” the news outlet wrote.
The team added that they would defend their position in court and would continue to report socially important facts and name the people involved in them, because in doing so they are exercising the media’s right to report and society’s right to information.
In July 2025, Dzerkalo Tyzhnia journalist Inna Vedernikova reported a smear campaign targeting her and her family in anonymous Telegram channels.