Journalist wins lawsuit on access to data about Shlyakh system exploiters

Illustration by the IMI

Journalist Olha Yuskovets won an information access lawsuit against the State Transport Safety Service (STSS). The court ordered the state body to provide her with data on draft-eligible men who left Ukraine through the Shlyakh system at the request of licensed freight carriers and did not return.

The Administrative Court of Appeal No. 8 passed the ruling on March 12, 2025, reports Syla Pravdy.

Olha Yuskovets used to be a journalist at Syla Pravdy and has been working at Bihus.info since last year.

The court recognized the requested information as socially important and the STSS's refusal as unlawful, and ordered the journalist’s request to be reconsidered.

The STSS must provide the data to the journalist, but with certain limitations. The court decided that the STSS will not have to disclose the full names of the fugitive drivers.

The Court of Appeal also overruled the earlier verdict in this case by the Rivne District Administrative Court. On May 30, 2024, the Rivne District Administrative Court granted the journalist's claim, declaring the STSS's refusal unlawful. The court ordered the State Transport Safety Service to provide copies of the letters from the State Border Guard Service featuring the names of the violators and with other personal data, such as document numbers and identification codes, redacted. The STSS appealed this ruling.

Previously

In April 2024, then Syla Pravdy journalist Olha Yuskovets investigated the draft-eligible men and enterprises exploiting the Shlyakh system. She wanted to know how many draft-eligible men did not return to Ukraine after leaving abroad through this system from 02/24/2022 to 03/31/2024. However, the STSS refused to provide her with answers to her query. Then the journalist filed an administrative lawsuit. Olha Yuskovets insisted that such information was of considerable community interest. While the trial was ongoing, Syla Pravdy released an investigation into how hundreds, if not thousands, of Ukrainian men left Ukraine as international transport drivers in the two years of the war.