This is Odesa’s fourth winter of war and while the Ukrainian port city has grown used to Russian drone and missile strikes, air-raid sirens and long blackouts, there will be something markedly different about this Christmas and New Year.
For the first time since 2014, Odesa’s festivities will not be presided over by Hennadiy Trukhanov, whose long and controversial time as mayor ended abruptly in October, when he was placed under house arrest and stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship.
Instead of turning on the lights on the main Christmas tree in the Black Sea port and delivering a New Year speech to its people, Trukhanov is expected to spend a quiet December in the Odesa house where he grew up, with an electronic ankle tag for constant company.
Many Ukrainians welcomed the downfall of a man who for them embodies what they see as the worst of Odesa – pro-Russian, corrupt and criminal – but he rejects such labels and vows to clear his name, even if it means taking on Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and its security services and other state agencies in the process.
I’ve been called lots of things – a crook and a gangster — Hennadiy Trukhano
Continue Reading on The Irish Times
This preview shows approximately 15% of the article. Read the full story on the publisher's website to support quality journalism.