Zelensky ally appoints himself as Odesa's acting mayor
Editor's note: the story is being updated.
Ihor Koval, the secretary of the Odesa city council, appointed himself as the city's acting mayor on Oct. 16.
The move follows President Volodymyr Zelensky's Oct. 14 decree to strip Odesa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov of his Ukrainian citizenship. The decision was based on evidence that Trukhanov is a Russian citizen, although he denies this.
In an effort to replace Trukhanov, Zelensky appointed Serhii Lysak as head of the the newly formed Odesa Military Administration on Oct. 15.
Trukhanov is a controversial figure in Ukraine due to his alleged links to Russia and the corruption charges against him. However, critics have accused Zelensky of turning a blind eye to the mayor's Russian citizenship before and trying to remove Trukhanov from office in order to monopolize power and eliminate local autonomy.
The procedure for depriving people of Ukrainian citizenship through presidential decrees without court decisions has also been lambasted as legally dubious or even illegal.
According to a decree issued by Trukhanov on Oct. 14, he went on vacation from Oct. 15 through Oct. 24. Trukhanov appointed his senior deputy Oleksandr Filatov as acting mayor during the vacation, prompting a potential legal dispute with Koval.
Koval published a different decree saying that he would be acting mayor under Ukraine's law on local government.
Under the law, the city council's secretary becomes acting mayor in the event of the mayor's dismissal or death or if the mayor is unable to exercise his or her powers. Trukhanov was removed from office because only Ukrainian citizens are eligible for government jobs.
Koval was elected as a member of the city council in 2020. He represented Zelensky's Servant of the People party in the election, although he is not formally a member of the party's faction in the council.
Koval, 70, is a political scientist and former president of Odesa National University.
Since 2014, several documents confirming Trukhanov's Russian citizenship have been published by Ukrainian lawmakers Yegor Firsov and Volodymyr Aryev and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
In 2017 a Russian court also published a decision on annulling Trukhanov's Russian passport.
However, the annulment of a Russian passport does not mean being deprived of Russian citizenship, according to the country's law. No evidence has been published that Trukhanov has initiated the procedure of terminating his Russian citizenship.
The Insider, a Russian investigative journalism outlet, confirmed on Oct. 15 that Trukhanov had two Russian passports, citing official databases. However, the outlet added that the former mayor's alleged Russian passport published by Ukraine's Security Service (the SBU) is fake. The service did not respond to a request for comment.
Trukhanov is also on trial in a corruption case involving Odesa's Krayan factory building.
