Son of Kherson mayor tells about torture and detention of Kolikhayev in the Urals

The mayor of Kherson, Ihor Kolikhayev, has been held captive by the Russian military for over three years. According to available data, he has been held for about a year in the Perm Territory in the Ural region of Russia.

His son Svyatoslav told Vgoru about his father's whereabouts and condition in an interview.

According to him, the information comes mainly from people who have been released from captivity. Svyatoslav notes that he last communicated with a former prisoner who saw Igor Kolikhayev at the end of August this year in the Perm region in the Urals.

According to his son, the conditions of detention there are extremely harsh. Prisoners are forced to stand for hours, and they are regularly subjected to physical violence. The only thing that helps to survive in such conditions is mutual support between prisoners.

Prior to that, Kolikhayev was held in Taganrog for almost nine months, where he was kept in solitary confinement. Svyatoslav emphasizes that the isolation was a serious blow to his father's psyche.

Currently, the mayor's health condition is assessed as serious. According to people who returned from captivity, Kolikhayev' s physical condition is critical. There was a case when he could not get up because of the high temperature and had to lie down all the time.

The son also spoke about his father's moral condition. According to him, the mayor of Kherson is gradually losing faith that he will be able to return home.

The family continues to appeal to Ukrainian and international organizations in an effort to obtain more information about the prisoner's condition and to secure his release.

The abduction of the mayor of Kherson became known on June 28, 2022. On September 3, the International Committee of the Red Cross officially confirmed that Igor Kolikhayev was in captivity. Earlier, Sviatoslav reported that the Russian side had included his father in the list of prisoners and was holding him on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Taras Bukreev, a Kherson teacher and candidate of historical sciences, said that he first met him in a car on the way to Hola Prystan. They also crossed paths during their ten-day stay in Hopry. Subsequently, in Chaplynka, they spent about a month in the same cell until the mayor was taken to an unknown destination in late November.

In addition, a person who had been held in a secret FSB prison in occupied Simferopol for more than two and a half years and later returned to Ukraine reported seeing him there.

The occupiers detained Igor Kolikhayev after he visited the office of one of the municipal enterprises, when the city was under the control of the Russian Federation.

Eyewitnesses claim that the reason for his detention was his refusal to cooperate with the occupation authorities. After his abduction, he was held in an unknown location, without the possibility to contact his family or receive legal assistance. Ukrainian officials emphasized that the mayor of Kherson was taken prisoner because of his clear pro-Ukrainian position.

Анна Бальчінос