Rivne website posts smear content about Chetverta Vlada again

The website Rivnenski Novyny has posted another discrediting article about Chetverta Vlada based around an anecdote shared by “Servant of the People” MP Dmytro Solomchuk, who claimed to have treated a Chetverta Vlada journalist to some buckwheat. Chetverta Vlada chief editor Volodymyr Torbich says both the MP’s story and the Rivnenski Novyny article are a lie.

Hanna Kalaur, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Rivne oblast, looked into the situation.

The  article titled “'I fed them buckwheat:' MP speaks frankly about his relations with the so-called 'independent' journalists in Rivne” was released on April 16. Rivnenski Novyny singled out the "tasty Ukrainian buckwheat" anecdote from Solomchuk's interview with Suspilne and claimed that Chetverta Vlada has hardly mentioned him since the MP treated the journalist to the meal.

Rivnenski Novyny posted a manipulative illustration targeting Chetverta Vlada. Screenshot from Rivnenski Novyny by the IMI

In September 2024, the Civil Society Network “Opora” released a study showing that Dmytro Solomchuk “has become infamous for continuously giving away groceries in his reception room for voters.” Chetverta Vlada journalist Olha Pidhorodetska recorded the groceries giveaways and the personal data of the elderly people receiving them being taken down. When asked by Suspilne about this practice, the MP replied with an anecdote about how he “treated” the journalist to some buckwheat.

“Yes, I later invited the Chetverta Vlada journalist to my office. I put a pot on the stove, cooked her some buckwheat, treated her to the buckwheat, and they wrote nothing about it. The buckwheat was quite tasty, harvested in Ukraine, by Rivne farmers, from Khmelnytskyi. It was grown locally,” Dmytro Solomchuk told Suspilne.

Instead of analyzing Solomchuk’s “buckwheat politics”, Rivnenski Novyny focused on a cherry-picked episode featuring the journalist. “By the way, the website has hardly ever mentioned Dmytro Solomchuk, who represents the pro-government party “Servant of the People”, since this visit,” the website hints. The article also alleges that Chetverta Vlada has failed to comply with the incorruptibility principles.

The MP Solomchuk's buckwheat article is by the Chetverta Vlada journalist Olha Pidhorodetska, who said in a comment to the IMI representative that she considers the Rivnenski Novyny article a smear attempt.

“First of all, no one invited me to meet MP Dmytro Solomchuk. As a journalist, I contacted his assistant and arranged an interview to find out what kind of buckwheat distribution campaign was going on and why they were collecting people's personal data. I don't recall having to try or eat buckwheat in the company of the MP and his assistants. Yes, the MP really showed me a pot of buckwheat and suggested that I try it, claiming that he and his assistants were just about to sit down and have lunch. But I wasn't going to write about it, because it was irrelevant to my topic,” said Olha Pidhorodetska.

The journalist suggested that the MP's statement could have been a PR stunt or that he had misspoken. "But this does not mean that I violated journalistic standards or became part of his PR stunt. At the very least, the MP should publicly apologize to me personally and to the editorial team by donating to Rivne Drone fundraiser," she said.

Chetverta Vlada chief editor Volodymyr Torbich called the Rivnenski Novyny article a lie in his Facebook post. He says that the website's editor Andriy Androschuk "parroted and exaggerated the lies by a populist Servant of the People MP".

“Dmytro Solomchuk, I will accept a public apology for spreading false information in the form of a donation to the drone fundraiser for the UAF Airborne Assault Forces Jaeger Brigade No. 71,” Torbich wrote.

This is not the first time that Rivnenski Novyny has tried to discredit Chetverta Vlada. The website posted two defamatory articles about the investigators in December 2024.

Rivnenski Novyny was founded by Andriy Androschuk, once an adviser to the former head of the Rivne Oblast Administration, Oleksiy Mulyarenko. Androschuk has been a subject of multiple Chetverta Vlada investigations into his spreading misinformation about journalist Inna Biletska, as well as drunk driving.