The Enforcement Service forced kp.ua to remove the fake article about Alona Shevtsova
The news portal kp.ua has removed all inaccurate content regarding Alona Shevtsova, the former co-owner of “Ibox Bank,” from its website. Attempts to access the page containing the controversial article about alleged “fund transfers to Russia” currently result in a “404. Page Not Found” error.
The removal of the fake publications likely occurred in compliance with the requirements of the State Enforcement Service of Ukraine, which initiated enforcement proceedings against the portal’s owner, Yulav Media LLC. The chief state enforcement officer of the Shevchenkivskyi District Department of the State Enforcement Service in Kyiv initiated enforcement proceedings based on writ of execution No. 761/42266/25, giving the publication a total of five calendar days to voluntarily remedy the violations. In addition to removing knowingly false information and personal photographs of Alona Shevtsova, the SES required the portal to publish an official retraction.
What exactly were the media outlets required to retract?
According to the enforcement document, kp.ua must publicly acknowledge as defamatory the information that the tabloid disseminated in May 2025 in articles in Ukrainian and Russian. The text of the official retraction, under the same title “Retraction,” must clearly state that all of the journalists’ allegations regarding accusations by the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) about an alleged “scheme to launder 5 billion hryvnias” through iBox terminals and the use of the company “LEO” for illegal operations and any “cooperation with Russia.”
Background
The forced intervention by the State Enforcement Service was preceded by a complete legal defeat of Yulav Media LLC in court. On March 18, 2026, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv fully upheld Alona Shevtsova’s lawsuit to protect her honor, dignity, and business reputation.
The court established two key violations by the media outlet:
- A gross violation of the presumption of innocence (Art. 296 of the Civil Code of Ukraine). A semantic-textual analysis proved that kp.ua presented accusations of serious crimes as established facts, rather than as evaluative judgments. In reality, no court conviction against Shevtsova has ever existed.
- Theft of personal data (Article 308 of the Civil Code of Ukraine). The editorial staff unlawfully disseminated and used the plaintiff’s personal photographs without her consent.
Official Responses from the SBU and the BEB
The main trump card for Alona Shevtsova’s side in court was official documents from state security and regulatory agencies. The lawyers provided official responses from the Security Service of Ukraine and the Bureau of Economic Security, which confirmed in writing: there are no active criminal proceedings, suspicions, or charges against Alona Shevtsova.
All previous cases that journalists attempted to manipulate were definitively closed by a ruling of the Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv back in July 2025, and the Kyiv Court of Appeals upheld this decision in October of the same year.
Financial sanctions against Yulav Media LLC
In addition to ordering the removal of content from the website and the publication of a retraction, the court imposed financial penalties on the publisher. Yulav Media LLC was ordered to:
- Pay Alona Shevtsova 5,000 hryvnias in compensation for moral damages;
- Reimburse 7,900 hryvnias in court fees.
The plaintiff’s representatives emphasize that this case is an important precedent for the entire Ukrainian media landscape. It clearly demonstrates that the status of a major news portal does not exempt it from liability for damaging someone else’s reputation for the sake of hype and clickbait.
