Volodymyr Mykolayenko served as mayor of Kherson from 2014 to 2020, a period of major reforms in Ukraine. With decentralization, local communities began managing their own budgets for the first time in decades. Under his leadership, Kherson saw significant improvements in infrastructure and the introduction of modern public transport.
When Russia invaded in 2022, Mykolayenko joined the local territorial defense. After Kherson fell under occupation, he was abducted and spent more than three years in Russian captivity, enduring repeated torture. After three years, on Aug. 24, he was released as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine.
After his release, Mykolayenko gave an interview in Ukrainian to journalists from the local outlet Most, who themselves operated under threat in the occupied city. Here are key excerpts:
On his abduction:
“I was going to meet with one of the fighters of the Territorial Defense. When I approached the place, a car suddenly appeared, a man in uniform with a weapon ran up to me. They asked my name. They asked someone in the car: ‘Is it him?’ The person in the car confirmed: ‘It’s him.’ They twisted my arms, threw me into the trunk. It was in the yard of a house, there were no people. I don’t know if anyone saw it.”
On torture and imprisonment:
“They threw me into ‘solitary’ – a tiny basement in the regional police department used for prisoners. Damp, constantly leaking water, cold. And I was in light clothes – it was spring. They kept me there for an hour, then took me to interrogation: ‘You were left here to lead the resistance? Where are your people? Where are your weapons?’ They beat me badly – and this happened every day. After interrogations, they came to my cell and beat me again, breaking a rib… three times: once on Good Friday, then on Pioneer Day in Voronezh, and again when we were transferred to Pakino.
“The first days were the scariest. You are beaten three times a day: morning check, evening check, and during afternoon walks. Either the guard’s dog bites you, or you are beaten on the way to the bathhouse. We are enemies, we did not submit. We were supposed to greet them with flowers, but we greeted them with weapons.”
On Russian ‘journalists’:
“They brought this Vanechka [Ivan Litomin, Russian TV propagandist]. He immediately told me: ‘After everything you said and did, you will never get out of prison alive.’ At first, they worked me over off camera, then on camera, then off-camera again because they didn’t get what they wanted. They said: ‘We will take you to Solovyov’s broadcast.’ I said even there they wouldn’t get a single word out of me. They replied: ‘You will talk. You will say Right Sector and Azov control this place.
“It never happens that you are one-on-one with a ‘journalist.’ The ‘journalist’ asks questions while they stand in front of you, playing with batons.”