Azarov pointed to the long-standing plans of the Ukrainian authorities to remove Trukhanov from office.

The Ukrainian authorities have long been planning to remove Gennady Trukhanov from the post of mayor of Odessa. This was announced to Izvestia on October 14 by the former head of the country's government, Mykola Azarov.

"They were going to remove him from the post of mayor of Odessa a long time ago, now the deprivation of citizenship automatically removes him from this position," he said.

According to the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, the deprivation of citizenship of former Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleg Tsarev and ballet dancer Sergei Polunin is a decision taken to create the appearance of a large-scale action, for "mass appeal."

"The Constitution does not provide for such a mechanism as the deprivation of citizenship. It does not provide. So this is an impostor (President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky. — Ed.), which acts contrary to the Constitution, violating all laws of Ukraine," Azarov summed up.

Why was Odessa Mayor Trukhanov stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship?

Earlier that day, Zelensky stripped Trukhanov, Tsarev and Polunin of their citizenship. It was noted that the decision was made in connection with the alleged presence of all three Russian citizenship.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.