Mayor of Odesa Gennady Trukhanov did not look like himself when he was doing a video address that appeared on his Telegram channel on the evening of October 12. In it, Trukhanov, standing in his office, sometimes struggled to find Ukrainian words that he had only recently mastered. He said that he was going to be deprived of Ukrainian citizenship.

Several times, the mayor, who had been building an image of a laconic and self-confident businessman for exactly 20 years, suddenly ran out of air. He asked Odessans for help, although it is unclear what exactly he was counting on. A petition? Protest actions? A riot?

The petition finally appeared the next day. Within a day, it had gained more signatures than the law required for it to be considered by the president. Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked to deprive Trukhanov of his citizenship because of the alleged possession of a Russian passport, which both Trukhanov and the SBU had denied until then. The authenticity of this passport still in question.

LIGA.net began working on a portrait of Gennadiy Trukhanov several months ago. All this time, it seemed that the mayor of Odesa was entrenched in his chair forever.

No trial against him promised to result in a conviction. No competitor seemed strong enough to compete fairly – or even unfairly – in the political contest. Opponents had nothing new to discredit Trukhanov. Many of them had come to terms with his continued mayoralty, accepting him as the lesser of evils.

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