Kostiantyn Andriyuk, journalist and host of the YouTube channel ZupynyLosia, is suing the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) and its Rivne oblast representative Hanna Kalaur.
Andriyuk requests that IMI retracts information reported on their website, believing that it defames him, reports Hanna Kalaur, who received a statement of claim to that effect.
Andriyuk asks the court to declare the information in IMI’s news story “Journalist uses photo of a deceased servicewoman in fundraiser without her family’s consent” as misleading and to order the takedown of the article.
Hanna Kalaur said that Andriyuk’s lawsuit makes no mention of the fact the channel ZupynyLosia, which he runs, did use the servicewoman’s photo. Instead, most of the claims relate to the fact that the news story allegedly failed to represent the fundraising campaign’s goal.
The case will be tried by the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv.
Previously
IMI reported on 5 January 2026 that Kostyantyn Andriyuk had launched a fundraiser for the army on his YouTube channel ZupynyLosia, using a photo of the late Lana Chornohorska (Sati), a servicewoman of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army’s unmanned aviation service. She had been killed in a Russian drone strike in Ukraine’s South on 1 January 2026.
The YouTube channel posted the photo without the consent of Sati’s family and with no mention of her death. The relatives of the deceased servicewoman called the decision unethical and demanded the takedown of the image.
Sati’s fellow servicewoman Svitlana Koval said in a comment to IMI that Kostyantyn Andriyuk had been raising funds using the photo for two days, failing to mention that Lana had died. During the period, social media users had been wishing her good health and expressing support in the comments, Koval said. According to her, the journalist only deleted the post two days later. He made no response to the takedown requests by the servicewoman’s relatives.
Media expert, Commission on Journalism Ethics member, and IMI director Oksana Romaniuk said that in terms of ethics, Andriyuk’s actions were a violation.
Kostyantyn Andriyuk refused to explain the motives for using the deceased servicewoman’s photo in his comment to IMI. When asked about the reasons for posting the photo and leaving the relatives’ appeal without response, he replied that he “cannot explain anything” and stated that he saw nothing unethical in his actions. Andriyuk added that he did not intend to comment on third party requests and offered no additional explanations regarding the situation.
The trial has not yet begun; IMI will be posting updates as the case progresses.
