Supreme Court dismisses MP's lawsuit against Prykarpattia news outlet Galka

Illustration by IMI

The Supreme Court of the Civil Court of Cassation refused to open cassation proceedings following MP Ihor Fris's defamation lawsuit against the editorial office of the Ivano-Frankivsk online news outlet Galka.

The July 8, 2025 ruling entered into force immediately and is not subject to appeal, Galka reports.

On January 4, 2023, Galka released a news story titled “Prykarpattia MP refuses to sign appeal to withdraw OPFL deputies' mandates, reports Chesno”. It reported on the initiative by MP Oleh Dunda which Ihor Fris did not sign. Ihor Fris responded by suing Galka, stating in his lawsuit that he considered the reported information to be misleading (distorted), since he co-authored three other addresses to the Verkhovna Rada Chair on this issue and at least two draft bills on a related topic. He requested that the court order the media outlet to retract the reported information.

In 2023, the Ivano-Frankivsk City Court partially sided with the plaintiff and ordered Galka to publish a retraction. The team filed an appeal, which the Ivano-Frankivsk Court of Appeal granted on January 25, 2024, refusing to grant Fris’s claim.

On March 7, 2024, Fris filed a cassation appeal, with the Supreme Court referring the case back to the Court of Appeal for retrial. On May 12, 2025, the Ivano-Frankivsk Court of Appeal granted the motion by LLC “Agency for Law Technologies” (Galka's publisher) in the defamation lawsuit by Ihor Fris.

Fris later filed another complaint with the Supreme Court, which ruled:

"I. P. Fris claims that the courts incorrectly applied the substantive law and that procedural law has been violated and requests that the appellate court's resolution and additional resolution be cancelled and the first instance court's ruling be upheld…

"Case No. 344/385/23 is of little complexity and does not fall under the exceptions provided for in Clause 2 of Part 6 of Article 19 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine… Considering the subject of the claim, the nature of the legal relations, and the complexity of the case, the Supreme Court considers it possible to declare this case of little significance…

"The opening of cassation proceedings should be declined, since the cassation complaint was contesting court rulings that are not subject to cassation,” says the Supreme Court ruling received by Galka.

The ruling entered into force immediately upon signing and is not subject to appeal.