Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree establishing the Odesa City Military Administration and an order appointing Serhii Lysak as its head. The documents were published on the official website of the President’s Office.
The military administration was created under Ukraine’s martial law. Its formation has been assigned to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Odesa Regional State Administration.
Serhii Lysak is a career security official with combat experience. He led the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) offices in Zhytomyr and Dnipropetrovsk regions and took part in the Anti-Terrorist Operation in eastern Ukraine in 2014–2015 and 2017 (the official term Ukraine used for fighting against Russia-backed armed groups). In March 2022, he was promoted to brigadier general. Since February 2023, he has headed the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration; his duties will now be temporarily carried out by deputy Vladyslav Haivanenko.
Yesterday, Zelensky signed a decree stripping Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov, former lawmaker Oleh Tsaryov and ballet dancer Sergei Polunin of Ukrainian citizenship. The President confirmed the signing, noting that the decisions were prepared due to confirmed evidence that some individuals hold Russian citizenship. Trukhanov denied having a Russian passport, calling the accusations politically motivated, but a scan of his passport, issued by Russia’s Foreign Ministry, was found in the “Panama Archive.”
That same day, Zelensky responded to a petition to create a city military administration in Odesa, submitted on September 24 and gathering more than 25,000 signatures. He said no such submissions had yet come from regional authorities or the military command and instructed officials to review the initiative’s rationale.
