Trukhanov vs. Zelenskyi: Will the Mayor of Odesa be able to prove his Ukrainianness?
16 October 09:58
Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov was deprived of Ukrainian citizenship because of a Russian passport found by the SBU. Trukhanov is the first and only mayor who will lose his position after being deprived of citizenship. Although, according to lawyers, he can fight for his seat in court. Is it possible to deprive a citizen of Ukraine of citizenship, and even the mayor of a city, found out
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced his decision to deprive a number of people who have been confirmed to have a Russian passport of their citizenship. Among them is the current mayor of Odesa. According to the SBU, the mayor, Hennadiy Trukhanov, who has been deprived of Ukrainian citizenship, has a valid Russian passport and also had a Russian internal passport that was revoked.
“The Presidential Commission on Citizenship has decided to terminate the citizenship of our state to Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov. This decision, in particular, is based on the evidence base of the Security Service of Ukraine and approved by a presidential decree,” the statement said.
According to the SBU, Trukhanov still has a valid Russian passport, while his internal passport was revoked by a court in Moscow region in 2017. But Trukhanov himself denies this information, claiming that he has never applied for Russian citizenship and has never received a Russian passport.
“Personally, I have always lived on the territory of Ukraine, in the city of Odesa. I have never been registered in the territory of the Russian Federation. I was not in the databases of Russian citizens and did not even have grounds for automatic citizenship as a military man, as I left the CIS Armed Forces on January 15, 1992. And the law on automatic recognition as a citizen of the Russian Federation came into force on February 6, 1992,” the mayor of Odesa wrote on his Telegram channel.
The issue of deprivation of citizenship should be decided by the court
The decree revoking Trukhanov’s citizenship was signed by the President. And this, according to the law “On Local Self-Government,” means that he must leave his post, as only a citizen of Ukraine can be a mayor, said
“The paradox is that he was elected as a citizen of Ukraine, because only a citizen has the right to run and be elected. And now, by the decision of the commission, he is being deprived of his citizenship. I am not convinced that this is in line with the law,” emphasized Bahanets.
In his opinion, this is not a legitimate way to remove a local government official elected by the people. If it is an elected position, such issues should be resolved by the court, not the commission.
“If the authorities went to court and raised the issue of his dismissal based on a certain fact, and the court made a decision, then it would be a different matter. That is, the court would have to prove that he has another citizenship, and only then would it dismiss him. After all, people elected him, so only a court can dismiss him. This is the only legal mechanism in a state that respects the law. All such issues should be resolved by the court,” believes Bahanets.
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Now, according to lawyers, Trukhanov can go to court. If the court acts within the framework of current legislation and international law, he has a chance to win the case. In fact, Trukhanov has already stated that he is going to do so:
“I will appeal the decision to deprive me of Ukrainian citizenship in the Supreme Court. If this is not enough, I will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights,” Trukhanov said.
Those who have already been deprived of citizenship have not regained it
Lawyers emphasize that Article 25 of the Constitution of Ukraine explicitly prohibits the deprivation of citizenship, especially for those born in the country. Article 4 enshrines the single citizenship of Ukraine as a unitary state. Thus, any attempts to deprive people of citizenship contradict the Basic Law.
However, termination of citizenship is possible under the law, for example, when a citizen voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another country and does not renounce Ukrainian citizenship.
“Back in 2022, the President deprived Hennadiy Korban, the head of the Dnipro terrorist defense headquarters, oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, and a number of politicians and businessmen who fled abroad of their citizenship. By the way, the grounds for Korban’s deprivation of citizenship are still unknown, and there is a lot of speculation about this, but he has not been able to return the Ukrainian passport seized at the border. Kolomoisky, on the other hand, was deprived of his citizenship because of his second Israeli passport. And even the court could not change anything. In April of this year, the Supreme Court confirmed the legality of the decree that deprived Kolomoisky of his citizenship. One of the grounds was that he voluntarily received Israeli citizenship in 1995 and did not renounce his Ukrainian citizenship. This was the reason for the loss of citizenship,” lawyer Valentyn Serkov said in a commentary to
Now Trukhanov’s lawyers are sending inquiries, trying to get the text of the decree on revocation of citizenship. They plan to appeal to the courts, international human rights organizations and foreign countries, including the United States.
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According to the law, in case of deprivation of Ukrainian citizenship, the powers of the mayor are terminated from the moment the relevant decision is made by the city council, which takes note of this fact. This is stated in part 11 of Article 79 of the Law of Ukraine “On Local Self-Government”. Until that moment, Trukhanov must continue to fulfill his duties as a community-elected mayor.
However, Zelenskyy created the Odesa MVA and appointed Serhiy Lysak , the head of the Dnipro Regional State Administration, as its head. The relevant decree has already been signed. That is, the decision of the city council was bypassed. We can say that Trukhanov is no longer the mayor.
The author: Alla Dunina
