Official sues Konkurent team for defamation, demands UAH 50 000 in moral damages

Lutsk City Council deputy Roman Bondaruk is suing the local media outlet Konkurent for defamation, demanding they retract the information he says is inaccurate and pay 50 thousand hryvnias in moral damages, Konkurent website editor Andriy Luchyk reports to Maya Holub, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Volyn oblast.

The lawsuit concerns the media outlet's news story “Ditched his own and uses military aid for PR: How Lutsk-based Servant of the People deputy Bondaruk kowtowed to Palytsia (video)”. The video is by journalist Natalia Polishchuk. The article and video were published on October 22, 2024 and say that the deputy wears military uniform for Instagram photo ops and is rumored to become the next director of the municipal institution Institute for City Development.

Screenshot from Konkurent by Maya Holub

Andriy Luchyk says that some time after the article was released, the team received a letter from Roman Bondaruk's lawyer demanding a retraction of some information. However, according to the chief editor, the retraction request did not comply with the law on media: the letter did not specify what the phrases or sentences that the lawyer considers inaccurate should be replaced with.

“The Law 'On Media' clearly prescribes how a retraction request should be formatted. They did not indicate what was incorrect about the material and how it should be replaced. We wrote that in our response letter. The letter was sent to the lawyer, who did not even pick it up from the post office,” said Andriy Luchyk.

Later, data on a trial in this case appeared on the Judiciary of Ukraine website. The editorial team received the lawsuit in early January 2025.

Andriy Luchyk said that the total sum they want to recover from the editorial office and from the author of the news story could reach 90 thousand hryvnias: 50 thousand hryvnias in moral damages and the deputy's legal fees.

The deputy asks the court to order the editorial office to retract the following statements:

• “deputies subordinate to one of the political forces have created a battalion in Lutsk”;
• “the battalion is registered as a NGO as opposed to a military formation”;
• “Lutsk City Council deputy Roman Bondaruk is here in full gear, greeting everyone on Defenders' Day, wearing a uniform and a bulletproof vest”;
• “and here he is all dressed up in army uniform”;
• “Roman Bondaruk, the commander of an entire battalion, probably plans to become the head of the newly created Institute for City Development, whose creation actively advocated himself”;
• “And what about it? Everyone knows that employees of municipal institutions get exempted from conscription”;
• “the head Roman Bondaruk decided to dodge carrying out real military duty”.

The court hearing on this case will take place on February 6 at 12:00 in the Lutsk City District Court, Volyn oblast.

In early 2024, Lyubov Yakovchuk, director of the Lutsk City Dental Polyclinic, filed a defamation lawsuit against the media outlet Konkurent, demanding a UAH 100,000 compensation for moral damages. The plaintiff claimed that the information shared by Konkurent in five articles harmed her dignity and business reputation and demanded that it be declared misleading. She asked the court to order the media outlet to remove all five articles mentioning her from the website. No judgement has been passed in this case yet.