Former Kherson mayor Mykolayenko refused to be exchanged in favor of a seriously ill prisoner

Former Kherson mayor Mykolayenko refused to be exchanged in favor of a seriously ill prisoner

Volodymyr Mykolayenko, the former mayor of Kherson who was kidnapped by Russian occupiers in April 2022, was planned to be exchanged. However, he refused, giving up his place to a seriously ill prisoner.

This was reported by the niece of the prisoner and former mayor of Kherson, Volodymyr Mykolayenko, Hanna Korshun-Samchuk, at a special event at the OSCE, organized by the Media Initiative for Human Rights together with the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group (ULAG), the ZMINA Human Rights Center, and the Crimean Human Rights Group.

She noted that the former mayor of Kherson is currently being unlawfully held in correctional colony No. 7 in the town of Pakino in the Vladimir region. He is being kept in inhumane conditions without adequate medical care.

It is still unknown whether the Russian occupiers filed official charges against Mykolayenko and whether they assigned him a punishment. This situation leaves the legal status of his detention unclear.

Freed hostages told Hanna that in 2022, Volodymyr was planned to be exchanged, but he himself refused his place. He asked for the release of his cellmate who had gangrene on his leg. The mayor of Kherson was concerned that due to his grave health condition, he might not survive in Russian captivity. Since then, the Russian side no longer included Mykolayenko in the exchange lists.

“On behalf of the families of civilian detainees, I ask for assistance in their release. Their detention violates all norms and laws. I live in Kherson, where Russians shell the civilian population every day. We want to understand whether we will live to see our loved ones freed from captivity,” says Hanna.

Volodymyr Mykolayenko led Kherson from 2014 to 2020. He was also a participant in the local Euromaidan. At that time, Mykolayenko expressed his strong position on preventing provocations in Kherson and the impossibility of the city being captured by terrorist groups.