Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has revoked the citizenship of Odesa’s mayor, Gennadiy Trukhanov, amid allegations that the long-serving city leader holds a Russian passport — a charge he has vehemently denied.
The announcement came Tuesday through Ukraine’s SBU security service, which confirmed on Telegram that the president had signed a decree suspending Trukhanov’s citizenship and transferring the administration of Odesa, Ukraine’s main Black Sea port, to military authorities. The SBU accused the mayor of “possessing a valid international passport from the aggressor country.”
Under Ukrainian law, holding Russian citizenship is prohibited — a rule tightened further since Moscow’s 2022 invasion. The decision could lead to Trukhanov’s deportation, though he insists he remains a Ukrainian citizen and plans to challenge the move in court.
“I have never received a Russian passport. I am a Ukrainian citizen,” he said in a video message posted on Telegram, adding that he wo
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uld “continue to perform the duties of elected mayor” as long as possible.
President Zelenskyy, in a separate statement, said the decision followed briefings from the SBU on efforts to root out “Russian agent networks and collaborators” across southern Ukraine and border regions. He hinted that Odesa, a city often described as the country’s maritime heartbeat, has faced “too many unanswered security questions for far too long.”
Images purporting to show a Russian passport belonging to Trukhanov have circulated widely online, though their authenticity has not been independently verified. Once regarded as a politician with pro-Russian leanings, Trukhanov shifted his stance after the invasion, aligning publicly with Kyiv and backing Ukraine’s defense forces.
A source told Reuters that Zelenskyy’s decree also stripped two others of citizenship — Ukrainian-born ballet dancer Sergei Polunin, a vocal supporter of Vladimir Putin, and former politician Oleg Tsaryov, who has been accused of collaborating with Russian authorities.
Zelenskyy has increasingly used citizenship revocations as a tool to assert state loyalty amid the war. In July, he withdrew citizenship from Metropolitan Onufriy, head of the formerly Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church.