Ukrainian creative director Andrii Pryimachenko has reached a settlement with HBO through a New York court after the company copied his work in the Chernobyl miniseries without crediting him as the author, Ukrainska Pravda reported. The court proceedings lasted for more than six years. Chernobyl is the Russian transliteration of the nuclear power plant’s name, while Chornobyl is the Ukrainian one.

"The settlement with HBO has been reached. The parties have come to an agreement as a result of the process in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. This is a significant precedent, as it marks a successful defence of a Ukrainian’s copyright in a US court in a case against one of the largest American (and global) media companies," Pryimachenko commented on Facebook.

In 2019, when HBO released the Chernobyl miniseries, Pryimachenko’s video was used in the first episode without his permission.

The video in question is a visualisation of the recorded phone conversations on April 26, 1986, between the dispatcher of the central fire communication hub and the dispatchers of the paramilitary fire station of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

At the time, Pryimachenko directly contacted the series’ director Craig Mazin. However, HBO’s legal team responded instead, claiming that the video was 100% unique and made by the team.

Despite this, Pryimachenko succeeded in defending his copyright to the work, as his visualisation video had been uploaded to the Studio Peredova YouTube channel back on March 18, 2013. The five-episode British-American miniseries Chernobyl, created and written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck, was released in May 2019.

"My goal was to restore justice. No matter what company it is or which country it comes from – be it the United States or China – you cannot take someone else’s work and pretend nothing happened," Pryimachenko added.