KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy revoked the citizenship of Odesa mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov on Tuesday, which Ukraine’s security service said was due to Trukhanov also being a Russian citizen.
Trukhanov denied having Russian citizenship and said he would take his case to court.
Ukraine prohibits its citizens from holding Russian citizenship, and Trukhanov – mayor of Ukraine’s biggest port city since 2014 – has been dogged by allegations of dual nationality throughout his political career.
“I now have evidence that I could not, either physically or legally, obtain Russian citizenship or passports,” Trukhanov told public broadcaster Suspilne.
Ukraine’s SBU security service said the decision to strip Trukhanov’s citizenship had been made thanks to evidence it had provided that Trukhanov had a valid Russian passport. It posted a picture on Telegram appearing to show a photocopied Russian passport page bearing Trukhanov’s name and face.
Trukhanov has also been under investigation since 2017 over embezzlement allegations that he has denied.
A source familiar with the matter said Zelenskiy had also taken away the Ukrainian citizenship of two others. Under Ukraine’s constitution the president has the power to revoke people’s citizenship.
“The Russian citizenship of certain individuals has been confirmed – relevant decisions have been prepared regarding them. The decree has been signed,” the president wrote on Telegram, without giving any names.
Oleksiy Honcharenko, an opposition lawmaker from Odesa and a fierce critic of Zelenskiy, said Trukhanov had “many questions” to answer but nevertheless condemned the stripping of his citizenship.
“Today they will take Trukhanov away and we will all rejoice because he is bad, but tomorrow this machine of repression will be unleashed against inconvenient people,” he wrote on Telegram.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa, Max Hunder, and Tom Balmforth Editing by William Maclean and Hugh Lawson)
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