The Ukrainian leader has instead appointed a military administration to run the country’s biggest port city on the Black Sea, with a population of about 1 million. “The Ukrainian citizenship of the mayor of Odesa, Gennadiy Trukhanov, has been suspended,” Ukraine’s SBU security service announced on the Telegram messaging app, citing a decree signed by Zelenskyy. The SBU accused the mayor of “possessing a valid international passport from the aggressor country”. Ukraine prohibits its citizens from also holding citizenship in Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the move against Trukhanov could see him deported from the country.

In a post on social media, Zelenskyy said that he had held a meeting with the head of the SBU, which had reported on “countering Russian agent networks and collaborators in the front-line and border regions, as well as in the south of our country”. The SBU chief “confirmed… the fact that certain individuals hold Russian citizenship – relevant decisions regarding them have been prepared. I have signed the decree”, Zelenskyy said. “Far too many security issues in Odesa have remained unanswered for far too long,” the president also said, according to reports, without providing specific details. A former member of parliament, Trukhanov has been the mayor of Odesa since 2014. He has consistently denied accusations of holding Russian citizenship, an allegation that has dogged him throughout his political career.

“I have never received a Russian passport. I am an Ukrainian citizen,” Trukhanov stressed in a video message posted on Telegram following the announcement of his citizenship revocation. Trukhanov said he would “continue to perform the duties of elected mayor” as long as possible and that he would take the case to court. Images of a Russian passport allegedly belonging to Trukhanov have been shared widely on social media in Ukraine. (Al Jazeera/Reuters)