Odesa’s mayor makes PM honorary citizen

THE Black Sea city of Odesa has made Boris Johnson an honorary citizen for his assistance to Ukraine, making him the first Briton to receive the award.

Mr Johnson is feted across Ukraine for the military help he has given the country since Russia invaded on Feb 24. “We highly appreciate the help of your country, your Prime Minister,” Gennadiy Trukhanov, the mayor of Odesa, told the BBC.

Britain has emerged as the country’s “main ally and friend”, he said. If other nations had provided similar assistance, he added, Ukraine “would have defeated the invaders a long time ago”.

“I would like to emphasise that this is the struggle of the entire civilised community against fascism version 2.0, and in this struggle Mr Johnson will become the first honorary citizen of the city from Great Britain, for the entire existence of the award, since 1862.”

British anti-tank missiles and battlefield intelligence have been credited with helping Ukraine defend itself. Last month, Mr Johnson also pledged to send long-range missiles to Ukraine.

He is by far the most popular Western leader in Ukraine and was one of the first to visit Volodymyr Zelensky, the president, in Kyiv. Streets and cakes have been named after him.

Boris Johnson Street is in the town of Fontanka, which sits on the outskirts of

‘We highly appreciate the help of your country, your Prime Minister... You have been our main ally’

Odesa. It was previously named after Vladimir Mayakovsky, a famous Russian poet and playwright.

“He is a very strong and clever and brave man,” one resident Fontanka told The Sunday Telegraph when the change was announced in May.

He added: “It is wonderful that this street has been named after him, as it is important for us Ukrainians to know not just our own heroes but those from overseas who helped our country.” Not everyone in Odesa is impressed by Mr Johnson’s award, however. One local businessman pointed out that the mayor, Mr Trukhanov, was previously in a pro-Russian political party and, in 2018, a BBC Panorama inquiry named him as part of an alleged Ukrainian crime gang that used offshore firms in British tax havens to secretly invest millions in the UK.

He was accused of being the gang’s sergeant-at-arms, although he denied Panorama’s claims.

“I think this is just a bit of PR by the mayor to give himself some good headlines,” the businessman said. “Trukhanov should be in jail.”