Hennadiy Trukhanov, the embattled mayor of Odesa, again denied allegations he illegally held Russian citizenship , as Ukraine’s president stripped him of Ukrainian citizenship and imposed a military administration on the country’s most important port city.
A former lawmaker in Ukraine’s parliament and mayor of the Black Sea port since 2014, Trukhanov has been dogged for years by accusations of holding Russian citizenship, which is illegal under Ukrainian law.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week announced he was revoking Trukhanov’s citizenship, citing reports by the country’s main security agency that he held a Russian passport.
'I Did Not Apply To Russia For Citizenship'
Speaking in an interview with RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service on October 15, Trukhanov tried to convince Ukrainians the allegations were false.
"I assure all Ukrainians, everyone who sees and who wants to know the truth today, that I never had Russian citizenship,” he said. “I had no right to obtain this citizenship, because I did not apply to Russia for citizenship in order to obtain citizenship from it, and I could not obtain it in any other way at all."
The security agency, the Security Service of Ukraine, released a photograph of a Russian passport it said was Trukhanov’s. The agency, known as the SBU, alleged the passport had been issued in 2015, about a year after Russia began a low-intensity sabotage conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
“I don't know why they don't like me,” he quipped. "Maybe it's my haircut.”
Already the largest Ukrainian port on the Black Sea and home to about 1 million people, Odesa took on greater economic and strategic importance after Russia's seized Crimea in 2014. The city is the main maritime export route for Ukrainian goods, and it's also home to the headquarters of Ukraine's navy.
In his announcement stripping Trukhanov of citizenship, Zelenskyy made unspecified reference to “security issues” in the city.
“Odesa deserves greater protection and greater support,” he said. "Too many security issues in Odesa have remained unresolved for too long.”
Severe Flooding
The city was also hit by torrential rains and severe flooding that killed at least nine people late last month. Zelenskyy publicly accused Odesa's "local leaders" of failing to do enough to protect residents from flooding.
“Perhaps the president is dissatisfied with how the city is currently responding to Russian aggression,” Trukhanov said. Perhaps there's reason to believe that Russia will try to seize and attack Odesa, and they're doubting your loyalty?”
Trukhanov himself called the SBU photograph purporting to be Trukhanov’s passport a fake. And some outside experts also cast doubt on it. The Insider, a Russian news site, said the photographappeared to be a forgery.
"If it turns out and becomes a fact that this is a fake, then I think that this could significantly undermine public trust in such an entity as the Security Service of Ukraine," Vitaliy Bezgin, a lawmaker from the ruling Servant of the People party, told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service. “And this will be a huge problem for us, for the state, because this entity in fact has a huge job during the full-scale war.”
Since the start of Russia’s invasion in Februrary 2022, Zelenskyy has ordered military administrations to be set up in the capital Kyiv and other cities, arguing it is a more efficient way to administer bigger municipalities during wartime.
Still, some mayors and municipal chiefs have chafed at the parallel administrations. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko in January 29 accused Zelenskyy's presidential office of political intrigue with its choice of a new military administrator.
