Hennadiy Korban sues Ukrainskyi Tyzhden, Yuriy Makarov for mentioning his death threats to Roman Ratushnyi

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Businessman Hennadiy Korban sued the editorial board of the magazine Ukrainskyi Tyzhden and journalist Yuriy Makarov for defamation, according to data from the Judiciary of Ukrfaine portal.

The case will be tried by the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv judge Olha Yuzkova.

In his comment to Detector Media, Yuriy Makarov said that he had learned about the lawsuit online by chance. He did not receive any official notification or invitation.

Makarov believes the lawsuit to be motivated by his September 11, 2024 article "The Builders" in Ukrainskyi Tyzhden, where one paragraph mentions the developer Hennadiy Korban and his death threats to activist and now deceased serviceman Roman Ratushnyi in the case of the development of Protasiv Yar in Kyiv.

The contested excerpt is as follows: "My hypothesis is that due to the industry specifics, it businessmen of a certain character and upbringing making the decisions on such projects. Just recall Hennadiy Korban's style when he set out to turn Protasiv Yar, a piece of nearly untouched green landscape in Kyiv, into a stone jungle.

"The team of highly professional raiders (which he did not even hide) promised to punish, kill, kidnap, drag through courts, and generally make life difficult for the local activists led by Roman Ratushnyi.

"We know the result: Roman died a brave death on the battlefield, Korban is hiding abroad from prosecution, and Protasiv Yar remained intact, but this is rather an exception."

Yuriy Makarov explained that he decided to write about Korban "so boldly, without additional citations" for two reasons: he knew Roman Ratushnyi since childhood and learned about the death threats to him firsthand.

"Roman Ratushnyi is the son of my old friend Svitlana Povaliyeva, so I knew him since childhood (as people know the children of their friends). So I learned about all these goings-on around the Yar, about the shameful death threats to Roman, literally firsthand. And this is what gave me the moral right to speak like this. Secondly, Korban's previous defamation lawsuit was against Roman Ratushnyi. So we can say that I found myself in worthy company here and will try to continue this case with dignity," the journalist said.

Still, Makarov admitted that some of his remarks about Korban were "not worthy of an experienced journalist," as they were based on his knowledge or conversations without relying on specific facts.

"Let’s say, it is a fact that Korban has been deprived of Ukrainian citizenship and that he is living abroad. But the fact that he is 'hiding from justice' there, as I wrote, is a rumor. Therefore, if we suddenly cross paths with Mr. Korban somewhere abroad, where he lives, then I am ready to apologize to him for these words. And that is when I will ask him to apologize for everything he did to my friends and the people of Kyiv in general,” Yuriy Makarov noted.

Regarding the upcoming trial, he has his own position, will defend it, all while reporting on it as an Ukrainskyi Tyzhden columnist.

Previously

In 2019, the Dnipro developer company Daytona Group, whose beneficiaries, according to Hromadske, include Hennadiy Korban and Oleh Levin, planned to build a residential complex in place of the historical green area in Protasiv Yar in Kyiv (a place near Roman Ratushnyi's home).

At that time, activist Roman Ratushnyi and the locals protested against the development plans. He led the civil society initiative Save Protasiv Yar, organized protests, bicycle and car races, appealed to the city authorities, filed lawsuits, etc.

Ratushnyi told Hromadske that he had received death threats "from criminals, namely Korban and his lawyer Andriy Smirnov." Later, the police opened a case under the article "death threats". Korban himself assured that he had nothing to do with the development, and it was a fake account threatening Ratushnyi.

In the spring of 2021, Hennadiy Korban filed a lawsuit against Roman Ratushnyi, Save Protasiv Yar, and Hromadske TV with the Solomyansky District Court of Kyiv. In the defamation lawsuit, Korban demanded that nearly all mentions of himself on the NGO's and Ratushnyi's social media pages be declared unreliable information. At that time, the court granted Korban’s claims.

An appeal hearing was scheduled for June 2022. However, Roman Ratushnyi was killed in action on June 9 during a battle with the Russians near Izyum.

The Court of Appeals initially refused to involve Roman's parents in the case as his legal successors and refused to satisfy the complaints. However, the Supreme Court later ruled that legal succession is allowed in this case. On March 22, 2023, the Kyiv Court of Appeals sided with Ratushnyi's lawyers and fully dismissed Korban's lawsuit.

In June 2022, Hennadiy Korban demanded that Hromadske remove references to his involvement in the illegal development of Protasiv Yar from their article about the recently deceased Roman Ratushnyi. The Hromadske team announced that they would not remove or retract the information at Korban's request.