Zelenskyy appoints Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Lysak as Odesa city governor
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration head Serhiy Lysak as head of the Odesa City Military Administration amid controversy over the stripping of citizenship from Odesa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov, a presidential decree on Wednesday showed.
By his decrees, Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Lysak from his position in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast administration and established the Odesa City Military Administration. Meanwhile, the administration in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast will be temporarily headed by Lysak's first deputy in his previous position, Vladyslav Hayvanenko.
Meanwhile, Trukhanov held a briefing at city hall and insisted he remains the mayor.
The move follows Zelenskyy’s earlier announcement that he had confirmed Russian citizenship in “certain individuals” and taken “appropriate decisions” without naming them.
Later, Ukraine’s Security Service confirmed Trukhanov’s Ukrainian citizenship was revoked because he holds a valid Russian foreign passport. The SBU said a Russian court had invalidated his internal Russian passport at the request of Trukhanov’s own representatives.
Zelenskyy promised to soon name a head for the Odesa City Military Administration. Trukhanov denies holding Russian citizenship and plans to challenge the president’s decision in court.
Background
On Sunday evening, Trukhanov posted a video message saying he was about to be stripped of Ukrainian citizenship.
He said a supposed new proof of his Russian citizenship was prepared by “some lawyer” who allegedly obtained confirmation from occupation authorities in Crimea.
On Monday, a petition appeared on the Presidential Office website calling for Trukhanov’s Ukrainian citizenship to be revoked. He had previously said he was about to lose it. It gathered the required 25,000 signatures in under 24 hours.
Zelenskyy said he had confirmed Russian citizenship in “certain individuals” and taken “appropriate decisions” without naming names. The SBU later confirmed the Odesa mayor’s Ukrainian citizenship was terminated because he is a Russian citizen.
Another petition urged the creation of the Odesa City Military Administration. Zelenskyy explained that he makes decisions on military administrations but based on submissions from regional state administrations or military command, which had not yet requested it.
Who is Lysak?
Serhiy Lysak is a Ukrainian military officer with the rank of brigadier general and a civil servant. He participated in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) in 2014-2015 and 2017. Prior to that, he served in operational and managerial positions in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) departments in various regions.
From 2020, Lysak worked as the head of the SBU in Zhytomyr Oblast, and two years later he headed the SBU in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. From 2023, he was the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast State Administration.
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