Odesa Mayor Trukhanov reacts to deprivation of Ukrainian citizenship — he that says he will sue

Odessa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov called the decision to terminate his Ukrainian citizenship a "forgery" and said he would appeal it in court.

He said this in a comment to Suspilne.

"Unfortunately, it turned out the way it turned out. Therefore, I will defend myself, I will file a lawsuit. If the court cannot decide, I will file a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights. This is the land of arbitrariness, which cannot exist," Trukhanov noted.

According to him, he never received Russian passports and did not travel outside Ukraine to do so. He says that data on border crossings in 2015-2016 confirm this.

Trukhanov emphasizes that in 2022, the Security Service, which conducted the check, found neither Russian citizenship nor passports in his possession.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he had received confirmation that "some people" had Russian citizenship and signed decrees regarding them.

He did not name who exactly he was talking about. However, during the telethon, citing a source in the government, they stated that Zelenskyʼs decree on the termination of Ukrainian citizenship applies to the mayor of Odesa Trukhanov.

Two more collaborators — former MP Oleh Tsarev and ballet dancer Sergei Polunin — were also likely stripped of their citizenship.

These decrees are not currently available on the presidentʼs website. However, the Office of the President explained to journalists that decrees on deprivation of citizenship are not published publicly because they contain personal data.

• On October 13, an electronic petition appeared on the president’s website demanding the termination of Ukrainian citizenship of Odesa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov. It collected the required number of signatures in less than 24 hours. Journalists have long claimed that Trukhanov holds a Russian passport, but he denies this.

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