Zelensky strips Odessa mayor of citizenship and office, accused of holding a Russian passport

BarcelonaUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the creation of a military administration to govern the city of Odessa, after revoking the Ukrainian citizenship of its mayor, Gennady Trukhanov, thus disqualifying him from holding the position. Zelensky signed a decree on Tuesday revoking Trukhanov's Ukrainian citizenship, arguing that he holds a Russian passport. And on Wednesday, the presidential website published the appointment of the current head of the Dnipropetrovsk region's military administration, Serhi Lisak, as head of the new administration created to govern Odessa.

The accusations against Trukhanov, who has governed the Black Sea port city for eleven years, are not new. In 2014 it was already published that he had dual Ukrainian and Russian citizenship, something that is prohibited by the Ukrainian Constitution, and in 2016 the issue resurfaced because it appeared in the Panama Papers as a Russian citizen. At that time, the war in Donbas had already been going on for two years after Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula.

Trukhanov has spoken out against the Ukrainian de-Russification movement that began at that time and has accelerated since Russia's full-scale invasion, a stance that has made him a divisive figure.

On Tuesday, Zelensky announced via social media that, after meeting with the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), they had concluded that "some individuals have Russian passports" and that he had made "the corresponding decisions." Shortly after, the SBU confirmed that one of those affected by the measure was the mayor of Odessa, and in the same statement published a photo of Trukhanov's alleged Russian passport, issued in December 2015 and valid for a period of ten years.

Trukhanov has denounced the published document as containing errors and a "clear forgery." He stated that he did not leave Ukraine in either 2015 or 2016 and announced that he will report the case to the Ukrainian courts and the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.

"Security issues"

In his address to the nation on Tuesday night, Zelensky justified his remarks by citing "security concerns" in the port city, which was able to prevent the entry of Russian troops at the start of the war. "Odessa deserves better protection and more support. This can be done within the framework of a military administration. There are too many security concerns in Odessa that have gone unanswered for too long," he said.

These comments follow accusations Zelensky made last week in which he singled out the city's "local leaders" for not having made sufficient efforts to protect its residents during flooding last month that left ten dead.

Some sectors, however, believe that this move by Zelensky is a response to his desire to eliminate potential rivals ahead of possible elections after the war ends. Odessa MP Oleksi Gontcharenko, from the main opposition party at the national level, denounced the measure as an attempt by the president to intimidate his political rivals, and suggested that Zelensky wants to control the huge source of revenue that the port of Odessa represents, the main source of power that his is not. The president personally selects the heads of the military administrations and, as such, will now have much more direct control over the city.