Military administration has been established in Odesa led by Serhii Lysak

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has established a city military administration in Odesa and appointed its head.

The relevant decree and order were published on the website of the Office of the President of Ukraine, according to NikVesti.

Serhii Lysak, formerly the head of the Dnipro regional military administration, has been appointed head of the Odesa city military administration. Vladyslav Haivanenko will now temporarily act as the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration.

There is little information about Serhii Lysak in open sources. In 2014-2015 and 2017, he took part in the anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine. From 13 May 2020 to 19 July 2022, he was the head of the Security Service of Ukraine in Zhytomyr region.

According to media reports, Lysak served in a unit engaged in counter-sabotage activities and was awarded the Order of «For Courage» of the III degree.

On 22 March 2022, he was promoted to brigadier general. Subsequently, from 19 July 2022 to 7 February 2023, Lysak served as the head of the SBU office in Dnipro region.

On 7 March 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Serhii Lysak as the head of the Dnipro Regional Military Administration.

The day before, Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced these personnel changes and emphasised that Odesa «deserves more protection and more support».

The decision was made against the backdrop of the termination of the Ukrainian citizenship of Odesa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov.

Earlier, Hennadii Trukhanov said that the Presidential Office was preparing an initiative to revoke his Ukrainian citizenship and called these intentions part of «another provocation».

In less than a day, 25,000 people signed a petition demanding that Hennadii Trukhanov be deprived of Ukrainian citizenship. The initiative gained the required number of votes after the natural disaster of 30 September, when ten people died. In response, Hennadii Trukhanov said that he was ready to undergo any test, including a polygraph, to prove that he did not hold a Russian passport.

Later, Hennadii Trukhanov stated that he was supported by the majority of citizens and had no plans to leave Ukraine.

In addition, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to an electronic petition to establish a military administration in Odesa.

Ukrainian journalists have repeatedly published investigations into Trukhanov's Russian citizenship. They wrote about it in «Slidstvo. Info» and Hromadske. In 2016, the Security Service of Ukraine began checking the Odesa mayor's ties to Russia, but later the agency said it was unable to find out whether he really had a Russian passport.