Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has placed the Black Sea metropolis of Odessa under military administration amid a conflict with the city’s mayor.
In a decree issued on Wednesday, Zelensky established a new military administration in the city to help in the fight against Russia’s invasion and appointed intelligence general Serhii Lysak as its head.
Lysak was simultaneously relieved of his position as military governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, a role he had held for more than two and a half years, to take on the new responsibility.
On Tuesday, Zelensky revoked the citizenship of Gennadiy Trukhanov, who has been Odessa’s mayor for more than 10 years, saying the mayor had a Russian passport.
Trukhanov denies the accusation, intends to file a lawsuit against Zelensky’s decision, and is trying to hold on to his position as mayor.
However with the loss of his citizenship, the city leader is effectively removed from office and could even face deportation.
“Far too many security issues in Odessa remained unanswered for far too long,” Zelensky had said on Tuesday without providing specific details. He added that the city needed stronger protection and more support.
Trukhanov, who has repeatedly condemned Russia for its numerous attacks on Odessa, has been mayor of the strategically important port city of over 1 million residents since 2014.
Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion for more than three and a half years.
Investigative journalists from the Russian portal The Insider have cast doubt on the authenticity of documents presented by Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service which point to Trukhanov being Russian.
Their verification of the passport number showed that such a passport had been issued five years earlier to a woman.
Additionally, the published copy contained an error in the English transliteration of his first name. This could not be independently checked.
Zelensky’s actions face criticism
Critics of Zelensky accuse him of increasingly replacing elected officials with military administrations led by his confidants.
Due to the ongoing martial law, the local elections originally scheduled for late October have been postponed. However, the mandates of all local representatives have been extended until the end of the war with Russia by a parliamentary resolution.
Zelensky has long faced accusations of authoritarian tendencies, including from Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko. In recent days, tensions between Klitschko and Tymur Tkachenko — the military administrator appointed by Zelensky in the capital — have flared publicly.
The president recently criticized Klitschko over power outages caused by Russian drone attacks.
Ukraine orders evacuation of towns near Kupiansk
Elsewhere, Ukrainian authorities ordered the evacuation of families with children from more communities in the eastern Kharkiv region due to a “worsening security situation” around the long-contested city of Kupiansk.
Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Wednesday that the evacuation affects 40 towns and involves 409 families with 601 children.
Kupiansk, which has been nearly totally destroyed by Russian attacks, is strategically important due to its location and transport links. Several towns in the surrounding area have already been evacuated as Russian forces try to advance westward.
Zelensky described the situation along the Kupiansk front as “difficult” at the end of September.
