On 9 April 2025, the general director of Zaporizhia-based TV channel VIKKA reported that the TV channel had been sued for defamation by Andriy Kovalenko, who is also known under his religious title of Bishop Luka. Serhiy Kuzlayev reported on the lawsuit in a post on Facebook. According to the journalist, the channel was being sued for an interview with Anatoly Bondarenko, the mayor of Cherkasy, in which the politician claimed that Bishop Luka “works in the interests of the enemy”.
Luka is a bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UPC) who presides over the church’s Zaporizhia and Melitopol diocese. UPC is one of Ukraine’s two largest Orthodox denominations, and has been outlawed in Ukraine due to its ties with Russia following the start of the full-scale invasion. Accusations against UPC were built on the fact that the church was historically subordinated to the Russian Orthodox Church and that it had reportedly not fully cut ties with Moscow. It was not clear what activities by Luka Bondarenko referred to when he claimed that the Orthodox bishop “works in the interests of the enemy”.
According to Kuzlayev, Luka’s lawsuit targeted both Bondarenko and VIKKA, due to which both the mayor of Cherkasy and the TV channel will be defendants in an upcoming court case.