After more than three years in Russian captivity, the former mayor of Kherson has returned to Ukraine. Volodymyr Mykolayenko, who was in office from 2014–2020, was abducted by Russian forces in April 2022. According to his niece, his captors refused to include him in prisoner swaps for years after he gave up his spot on an exchange list for a fellow prisoner who was severely ill. He was finally returned to his country on Ukraine’s Independence Day, August 24.
Former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, who was abducted by Russian forces shortly after they occupied the city in 2022, has returned to Ukraine as part of the latest prisoner exchange between the two countries.
The 65-year-old, a participant in the Euromaidan protests, was first elected mayor in May 2014 amid the unrest in eastern Ukraine and took a firm stance against pro-Russian activists. He was re-elected in 2015 but lost his seat five years later.
After leaving office, Mykolayenko remained active in the media, where he continued to speak out against Russian aggression. Shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion, he joined Ukraine’s territorial defense forces. Following the occupation of Kherson, he first received offers to cooperate, then threats from local collaborators. On April 18, 2022, he was abducted.
According to human rights advocates, Mykolayenko was soon taken to Crimea and later transferred to a prison in Russia’s Vladimir region. No formal charges were ever reported.
In May, Mykolayenko’s niece said that, according to Ukrainian servicemen who had already been released from Russian captivity, there were plans to include him in a prisoner swap as early as 2022. However, he asked that a soldier in his cell suffering from gangrene be released in his place. Since then, she said, Russia had refused to include him on exchange lists.
The exchange that freed Mykolayenko took place on August 24. Both sides swapped 146 soldiers each. Eight residents of Russia’s Kursk region, who had been taken to Ukraine’s Sumy region after the occupation, were also returned to Russia. Among the freed Ukrainians was UNIAN journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, who was abducted in the Kyiv region in March 2022.
After his release, Mykolayenko thanked everyone involved in the exchange. He called the day his “second birthday” and said he was especially glad it coincided with Ukraine’s Independence Day.
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