Odesa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship, the Rada TV channel said Tuesday, citing its own sources in government.
According to the same report, former lawmaker from the Opposition Platform–For Life party Oleh Tsaryov and ballet dancer Sergei Polunin, both having fled Kyiv-controlled territories, also lost their Ukrainian citizenship.
President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that he had prepared “certain decisions regarding individuals whose possession of Russian citizenship has been verified,” but did not disclose any names.
Local outlet Suspilne, citing its source from the Presidential Office, later confirmed that Trukhanov has been stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship.
Trukhanov denied holding Russian citizenship and called the decision to revoke his Ukrainian citizenship “a falsification,” saying he plans to challenge it in court.
The official told Suspilne he never obtained Russian passports or left Ukraine for this purpose, citing border crossing records from 2015-2016 and previous government checks that found no evidence of foreign citizenship.
He added that in 2022, Zelensky instructed the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and other agencies to verify the claim, and they found no Russian citizenship or passports in his name.
“Unfortunately, it turned out as it did. I will defend myself, I will go to court. If the court cannot resolve it, I will take it to the European Court of Human Rights… This is the extreme of lawlessness that should not exist,” he said.
If confirmed, the decision would mean the Odesa mayor’s powers are automatically terminated. His duties would be transferred to the city council secretary, or a city military administration could be established to take over governance.
On Monday, Odesa-based media outlet Dumska reported that a presidential commission had recommended revoking Trukhanov’s citizenship. A day before that, Trukhanov acknowledged that his case was under review.
He dismissed the move as “another provocation that has been going on since 2014,” insisting that he has never held Russian citizenship.
The Odesa mayor published a scan of what he claims is a forged passport issued on Dec. 15, 2015. Trukhanov insists that on that day he was in Odesa.
As proof, he shared a link to his social media post from Dec. 15, 2015, which included photos showing him attending an off-site meeting that day.
“This story has resurfaced again now. I wouldn’t have paid attention to it if I hadn’t learned that tomorrow, the presidential commission plans to consider revoking my Ukrainian citizenship over allegedly having Russian citizenship,” Trukhanov wrote on Telegram.
Does Trukhanov really have Russian citizenship?
Allegations that Trukhanov holds Russian citizenship have followed him for more than a decade – claims he has repeatedly denied as “politically motivated lies.”
The controversy first surfaced in 2014 during his mayoral campaign, when leaked data from Russia’s Federal Migration Service allegedly showed that Trukhanov held a Russian passport issued in Dagestan and later reissued in Sergiev Posad near Moscow in 2011.
That same year, Trukhanov said he wrote to the Russian Consulate General in Odesa and to the Federal Migration Service to confirm whether he was listed as a Russian citizen. According to him, both institutions responded that he was not.
He later published a certificate from the Russian consulate supporting that claim. Ukraine’s Migration Service also confirmed that it had no record of Trukhanov giving up his Ukrainian citizenship – meaning there was no legal basis to revoke it.
In 2016, the issue resurfaced after the Panama Papers revealed that Trukhanov allegedly held Russian citizenship and controlled about 20 offshore companies through the construction group ROST, registered in the British Virgin Islands. The companies reportedly controlled more than two dozen firms in Ukraine.
Following the revelations, the SBU opened an investigation into his possible Russian citizenship but later said it could not confirm whether he held a Russian passport.
Trukhanov again denied any wrongdoing, saying he neither owned foreign companies nor possessed Russian citizenship.
In 2024, civil activist and volunteer Serhiy Sternenko reignited the controversy by publishing what he said were official Russian documents proving Trukhanov’s citizenship.
Sternenko also alleged that Trukhanov opened a Russian bank account in February 2022 – shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.