Ukraine’s Zelenskiy strips citizenship of several former politicians

By Nick Starkov

LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy revoked the citizenship of several former influential politicians on Saturday in the latest of steps to “cleanse” the country from pro-Russian influences.

“Today, I signed the relevant documents to take another step to protect and cleanse our state from those on the side of the aggressor,” Zelenskiy said during his nightly video address.

Zelenskiy would not list the names, but said they had dual Russian citizenship.

According to Ukrainian state media, the list includes several top politicians from the office of Viktor Yanukovych, who served as Ukraine’s pro-Russian president from 2010 until he was removed from office in 2014.

The list included Dmytro Tabachnyk, former minister of education and science, Andriy Klyuyev, former deputy prime minister and head of Yanukovych’s administration and Vitaliy Zakharchenko, former interior minister, RBC-Ukraine news agency reported.

Ukraine has stripped a number of people of their Ukrainian citizenship and has sanctioned hundreds of Russian and Belarusian individuals and firms since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

(Reporting by Nick Starkov, David Ljunggren and Lidia Kelly; Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Sandra Maler)