The development follows the Ukrainian leader\u2019s decision to strip the mayor of Odessa of his citizenship over claims that he has a Russian passport<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Vladimir Zelensky has announced military rule in the key Black Sea port of Odessa, which serves as an important hub for the country in receiving weapons from its Western backers.
\nThe development follows Zelensky\u2019s decision on Tuesday to strip Odessa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov of his Ukrainian citizenship over claims that he has a Russian passport, rendering him ineligible for the post. The top city official denied being a Russian citizen and vowed to\u00a0take the matter\u00a0to court to restore justice.
\nTrukhanov, who had led Odessa since 2014, opposed the Kiev government\u2019s campaign to dismantle what it considered Russia-linked monuments, while describing the city as \u201cthe multicultural capital of Ukraine.\u201d\u00a0
\nA few months after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, he told the Italian paper Corriere della Sera that Kiev and Moscow should engage in talks and seek compromise. The mayor also demanded that Zelensky give more autonomy to the regional authorities.
\nIn June, Trukhanov told the locals that \u201cOdessa is not a Russian city.\u201d However, he did so in Russian, the first language of the majority of local inhabitants.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Zelensky strips prominent political opponents of citizenship \u2013 media<\/p>\n
In a video address later on Tuesday, Zelensky said that \u201cOdessa deserves greater protection and support. This can be achieved through a military administration.\u201d
\n\u201cToo many security issues in Odessa have gone unresolved for too long. All effective decisions will be made. I will appoint the head of the military administration in the near future,\u201d he said.
\nThe governor of Russia\u2019s Kherson Region, Vladimir Saldo, suggested in a post on Telegram that \u201cthe real reason\u201d for Trukhanov\u2019s removal is that \u201cZelensky needed to clear space and establish complete control over financial flows in Odessa, including profits from smuggling operations.\u201d
\nThe Russian military has repeatedly struck targets in Odessa during the conflict,\u00a0reportedly hitting\u00a0arms depots in the port area and facilities used to prepare naval drone attacks against Crimea and other parts of Russia.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Kiev mayor warns of \u2018difficult\u2019 winter<\/p>\n
In 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Odessa, which was founded on the orders of Empress Catherine the Great in 1794, is \u201ca Russian city. We all know about this. Everybody knows about this very well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The development follows the Ukrainian leader\u2019s decision to strip the mayor of Odessa of his citizenship over claims that he has a Russian passport Ukraine\u2019s Vladimir Zelensky has announced military…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}