Zelensky strips Odesa mayor of Ukrainian citizenship

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday stripped the mayor of Odesa, Gennadiy Trukhanov, of citizenship over allegations that he possessed a Russian passport.

“The Ukrainian citizenship of the mayor of Odessa, Gennadiy Trukhanov, has been suspended,” Ukraine’s SBU security service announced on Telegram, citing a decree signed by Zelensky.

The SBU accused the mayor of having Russian citizenship and “possessing a valid international passport from the aggressor country.”

Trukhanov has consistently denied the accusations.

A former member of parliament, Trukhanov has been the mayor of the country’s biggest port city on the Black Sea since 2014.

The decision to revoke his citizenship would effectively oust him from his post.

“I have never received a Russian passport. I am a Ukrainian citizen,” Trukhanov stressed in a video message posted on Telegram.

He said he will “continue to perform the duties of elected mayor” as long as possible and that he would take the case to court.

Once considered a politician with pro-Russian leanings, Trukhanov pivoted following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, publicly condemning Moscow while focusing on defending Odesa and aiding the Ukrainian army.

A Ukrainian government source told AFP that ballet dancer Sergei Polunin had also been stripped of citizenship.

Polunin, whose chest bears a large tattoo of Vladimir Putin, has been a vocal supporter of the Russian president.

The dancer, often referred to as the “bad boy” of ballet, made headlines when he resigned as principal dancer at Britain’s Royal Ballet in 2012.

Born in southern Ukraine, he obtained Russian citizenship in 2018. He supported Russia’s invasion in 2022 and, earlier in 2014, backed Russia’s annexation of Crimea, where he lived and worked.

The government source told AFP that the citizenship of pro-Kremlin politician Oleg Tsaryov, who survived an assassination attempt in 2023, had also been revoked.