Mykhailo Bukharov, CEO of the Lutsk-based company Vennagro (Spetskomuntekh) has sued the Investigative Journalistm Center “Syla Pravdy”. He demands that information reported the news story “Why a Lutsk company that sold over 160 million worth of equipment to state institutions is going bankrupt” be declared false and certain passages quoting the company’s co-founder Vadym Venislavskyi be retracted.
The plaintiff also demands 10,000 hryvnias in moral damages from the news outlet and another 40,000 hryvnias from Vadym Venislavskyi, Syla Pravdy reported, citing the Lutsk City and District Court ruling.
The lawsuit was triggered by a 4 December 2025 article by Syla Pravdy‘s Iryna Kravchuk, which discussed the start of Vennagro’s bankruptcy procedure. The company had been in business for over eight years, according to YouControl.
The company’s CEO, Mykhailo Bukharov, believes that some statements in the article, in particular the comments by the company’s co-founder Vadym Venislavskyi, are false and should be retracted.
Syla Pravdy said they had asked Bukharov to comment on the company’s financial situation and the corporate conflict between the co-founders, but he had refused.
The case is scheduled for 21 April 2026. Lawyers with the Institute for Regional Press Development (IRPD) will be representing Syla Pravdy.
IRPD lawyer Oksana Maksymeniuk considers the lawsuit to be frivolous. According to her, the plaintiff demands a refutation of the value judgments and assumptions expressed by the company’s co-founder in response to journalists’ requests to comment on the situation. Moreover, the author of the news article was not involved in the case, and part of the claims are unenforceable, in the lawyer’s opinion.
