According to our source in the President's Office, Bankov is deliberately "pressing" Gennady Trukhanov after he entered into a direct conflict with the OP. This is not just a criminal case, but a demonstration of power in the regions: who will continue to make political decisions, who will form lists, who controls local budgets and information networks.
The formal reason for the pressure is Trukhanov's suspicion of official negligence, which, according to the investigation, led to the deaths of people during a large-scale natural disaster on September 30 in Odessa. At that time, the city received a month and a half's worth of precipitation in one day, and the drainage system could not withstand it. At least nine people died, including a family with a child. The investigation believes that the city authorities failed to prepare the engineering infrastructure and properly inform the population about the danger.
On October 29, the former mayor of Odessa, his two deputies, heads of departments of the city hall, and officials of a municipal enterprise were charged with official negligence causing death (Part 3 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The maximum penalty is up to eight years in prison.
The prosecutor's office has already stated that it will petition the court for 24-hour house arrest for Trukhanov with an electronic bracelet. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the preventive measure will be considered in the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv.
Our source in the OP explains this move not only legally, but also politically. According to him, Bankova is sending a message to all the "heavyweights" on the ground: if anyone tries to play it safe and build an alternative center of influence against President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the consequences will be harsh and swift.
This message is personally attributed to the head of the President's Office, Andriy Yermak. According to the interlocutor, Yermak wants to show that before the election cycle, it is Bankova who determines the rules of the game: who will be allowed into the regional resource and who will not. The story with Trukhanov, who for years kept Odessa and local financial flows under control, became a demonstration for this.
The context makes the blow to Trukhanov even more pronounced. First, he had already been stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship after the SBU announced that he had a Russian passport; Trukhanov himself denied this and called it politics, but the authorities have made it public that they consider him toxic and dangerous.
Secondly, the "misfortune" case has become a universal tool of pressure: it sounds not like corruption or land, but like "the death of people due to the inaction of the authorities." This is an important point on the eve of any election, because with such a narrative it is very difficult to publicly defend the person involved.
From Bankova's perspective, this is also a signal to other regional elites in the South and Center, who have traditionally bargained with Kyiv rather than obeyed. The message is simple: in the current system of centralizing decisions, the vertical is built not through coalitions with local leaders, but through control of criminal cases, civil status, and judicial preventive measures.
The former mayor claims that the suspicion came as a “surprise” to him, and says the city council “worked minute by minute” on the day of the storm, warning the city and acting according to protocols. He insists that the problem in Odessa is a decades-old, worn-out sewage system that requires billions in investment, not “the mayor’s personal inaction on the day of the storm.”
If the court orders Trukhanov to be placed under 24-hour house arrest with a bracelet, it will legally establish him as a toxic and controlled figure in a criminal case. Politically, it will set an example for other mayors and major regional players: not to assemble their own alliances without the approval of Bankova, not to form anti-office coalitions, and not to play off local resources as an independent bet.
In fact, the Trukhanov case is becoming a public test of loyalty to the Office of the President before the new election cycle.
