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chairman Volodymyr Zelensky Odessa’s long-serving mayor Hennady Trukhanov has been stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship after security services accused him of holding a Russian passport.
Mr Trukhanov, 60, who has ruled black sea The port city denied the allegation for more than a decade.
“I will appeal to the Supreme Court against the decision to strip me of my Ukrainian citizenship. And, if that is not enough, I will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights,” he said in a video statement.
The Security Service of Ukraine released the image of a Russian passport with the mayor’s name and photograph on Telegram, claiming it was issued in December 2015 and is valid.
Ukrainian law prohibits public officials from holding dual citizenship.
In his overnight address on Tuesday, Mr Zelensky said he would soon appoint the head of a new military administration to take power in Odessa, hinting that Mr Trukhanov would be replaced.
“A lot of security issues have remained unresolved in Odessa for a very long time,” he said, reiterating earlier criticism that local leaders had failed to protect people in the city after flooding last month killed 10 people.
The president has also revoked the citizenship of two other individuals, a source told local media, Reuters reports.
The Constitution of Ukraine gives the President the power to revoke citizenship in certain cases.
Mr Zelensky’s latest decision deepens an ongoing rift between Kiev and several city mayors, who have accused the president of using wartime powers to tighten control.
Similar tensions have strained relations with mayors in Kiev and Kharkiv, who accuse central authorities of bypassing elected local governments under martial law.
Mr Trukhanov, a former member of the now-banned pro-Russian party, has long faced speculation over his nationality. In 2016, security services said they found no evidence of his Russian citizenship, but suspicions remained.
The mayor has opposed Ukraine’s “de-Russization” campaign, including moves to remove monuments associated with the Russian Empire such as statues of Catherine the Great, who founded Odessa in 1794, and statues of playwright Alexander Pushkin.
Opposition politicians condemned the revocation of Mr Trukhanov’s citizenship as politically motivated.
“Today, they will take Trukhanov and we will all be happy because he is bad, but tomorrow this machine of repression will be launched against inconvenient people,” said Oleksiy Honcharenko, an Odessa lawmaker from former president Petro Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party.
Oleksiy Potapsky, head of the same party in Odessa’s city council, called the move a “political action”, adding: “Our president has been in power for six years, and now he suddenly discovered that Mr. Trukhanov allegedly has Russian citizenship.”
Odessa, Ukraine’s third-largest city, has been deeply shaped by Russian cultural influence. It has endured Russian missile and drone attacks throughout the war.
By appointing a military administration, Mr. Zelensky would gain direct control over city governance because the heads of such bodies are personally selected by the president.
Meanwhile, World Health Organization staff were attacked while traveling with a UN convoy in southern Ukraine. Despite the attack, the team managed to deliver medical supplies to the town of Bilozerka, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday.
Two trucks of the World Food Program were damaged in the attack. “We reiterate our call to end attacks on humanitarian workers,” Mr Tedros said on Wednesday.