Arestovich called the revocation of the Odesa mayor’s citizenship an “extrajudicial reprisal”

A former adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine called the deprivation of citizenship of Odessa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov an “extrajudicial reprisal.”

The statement appeared on Oleksiy Arestovych’s Telegram channel.

“Another extrajudicial reprisal against a citizen of Ukraine — and an attempt at a raider takeover of Odessa,” wrote Arestovych.

According to him, Volodymyr Zelensky’s office will call this a ‘fight for security,’ but will not specify that it’s for their own security. The politician stressed that Odessa and Kyiv are electoral regions capable of deciding the outcome of any election.

On October 14, the Ukrainian TV channel TSN reported that Volodymyr Zelensky had stripped Trukhanov, former Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleh Tsariov, and ballet dancer Serhii Polunin of Ukrainian citizenship.

In response, Trukhanov said he planned to appeal the decision of the Ukrainian authorities in the Supreme Court, and if that was not enough, he was ready to apply to the European Court of Human Rights.

Later, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed the information about Trukhanov’s loss of citizenship and released a photo of his alleged Russian passport.