The Lutsk City Court of Volyn oblast dismissed the defamation and moral damages claims by the Lutsk Dental Polyclinic director, Lyubov Yakovchuk, against the news agency Konkurent.
The ruling was passed on 3 March 2026, according to the Unified Register of Court Rulings.
As reported earlier, Lyubov Yakovchuk sued Konkurent in 2023 for 100 thousand hryvnias in moral damages. The plaintiff also demanded that the information reported in five articles mentioning her be declared misleading and defamatory. In addition, she requested that the court order the news outlet to take down the articles in question from the website.
The disputed news stories about Lyubov Yakovchuk were released between 19 September and 21 October 2023:
- “Scandalous Lyubov Yakovchuk becomes Lutsk Dental Polyclinic director (photo)”;
- “Scandal at Lutsk Dental Polyclinic: incompetent ‘admin’ hired instead of manager”;
- “Lutsk Dental Polyclinic plans to relocate dentists: what problems this poses to doctors and patients”;
- “Lutsk Dental Polyclinic charges combatants for free services (photo)”;
- “Lutsk Dental Polyclinic diretor holds her position illegally”.
The court dismissed the claim, concluding that the disputed articles were critical in nature and contained personal judgments and beliefs about the plaintiff. Considering that the limits of permissible criticism of a public figure are broader than in case of a private person, the court found the demands to retract the information reported in these articles to be unwarranted and unenforceable.
The court ruling can be appealed within 30 days.
The Institute of Mass Information representative in Volyn oblast tried to get a comment from the Lutsk Dental Polyclinic director, Lyubov Yakovchuk, on whether she planned to file an appeal. Yakovchuk was not immediately available by phone.