Former Kherson mayor refuses to exchange for cellmate

Former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, who has been held captive by the Russian military since 2022, voluntarily refused to be exchanged to give a seriously ill prisoner a chance to be saved.

This fact was announced during a special event at the OSCE, ZMINA reports.

According to Mykolayenko's niece, Anna Korshun-Samchuk, after his stay in the occupied Crimea, he was transferred to colony No. 7 in the Russian city of Pakino (Vladimir region). Back in 2022, he was supposed to be included in the exchange list, but he gave his place to a cellmate who had developed gangrene. Mykolayenko did not want to let him die in captivity. After that, the Russians stopped including him in the exchange lists.

Currently, he is being held in harsh conditions without medical care, charges or a court decision, and his legal status has not yet been determined.
Anna Korshun-Samchuk called on the international community to help release civilian hostages, emphasizing that their detention is a gross violation of international law. She emphasized that, despite the daily shelling of Kherson, the relatives of the prisoners are waiting for the release of their loved ones.

Mykolayenko was abducted on April 18, 2022. In July of the same year, it became known that he refused to cooperate with collaborator Kirill Stremousov.

In 2014-2020, Mykolaienko headed the Kherson City Council, actively opposed pro-Russian forces, and had activist Kateryna Handziuk as an advisor.

On May 3, Russian propagandists aired a story with Mykolaienko in which a journalist tried to provoke him by demanding that he convict Roman Shukhevych. Despite the pressure, the former mayor responded with dignity, stating that Shukhevych fought for Ukraine, not Nazi Germany.

In addition to Mykolayenko, the current mayor of Kherson, Ihor Kolikhayev, is also in Russian captivity. He is suspected to be held in an underground FSB prison in occupied Simferopol.

Ірина Глухова