Deputy Head of the Office of the President Oleh Tatarov has definitively lost his appeal in a "protection of honor and dignity" lawsuit against Artem Sytnyk and Suspilne Movlennya (Public Broadcasting), the Anti-Corruption Action Centre (AntAC) has said.
The case concerns comments made by Sytnyk in 2020.
"The appeals court concluded that the former head of NABU was commenting on the official activities of the bureau in his capacity as a public official; therefore, the lawsuit against him as an individual is groundless," the report has said.
The decision was handed down by judges Dariia Tarhonii (presiding), Olena Borysova, and Svitlana Holub.
Artem Sytnyk’s interests in court were represented by attorney Oleksii Boiko, who also serves as legal counsel for the NGO Anti-Corruption Action Centre.
Previously, in a December 2020 interview, Artem Sytnyk stated that during his time working at Ukrbud, Tatarov, along with Mykytas, had provided a bribe in the form of a parking space to the head of an expert institution of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in exchange for a "favorable" expert opinion.
Following this, Tatarov filed a lawsuit with the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv, demanding a retraction of the information and the recovery of UAH 1 in "moral damages."
On May 6, 2025, Judge Dmytro Maltsev of the Shevchenkivsky District Court ruled in favor of the lawsuit.
However, on May 27, 2026, the Kyiv Court of Appeals completely overturned the ruling of the first-instance court and dismissed Tatarov’s lawsuit.
