"Sixty-two years old at the time, Volodymyr Mykolaienko joined his local territorial defense force on the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. His hometown of Kherson, where he served as mayor from 2014 to 2020, was captured by Russian troops within weeks. The following month, soldiers arrested Mykolaienko on the street. He was interrogated, tortured, and taken as a prisoner to occupied Crimea, then on to a penal colony in Russia."
"I'm still weak, but it's not too bad. The air of Ukraine, the love and respect of the Ukrainian people uplift me. When we saw the crowd people standing at the roadside from the Ukrainian border practically to Chernihiv, greeting us with flags and home-made placards, children and elderly people among them it's really a boost for your health; you feel such joie de vivre, love, and respect for these people and for Ukrainians in general."
Volodymyr Mykolaienko joined his local territorial defense force at age 62 on the day Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022. Kherson, where he served as mayor from 2014 to 2020, fell to Russian forces within weeks. Soldiers arrested him the following month; he was interrogated, tortured, transported to occupied Crimea and then to a Russian penal colony. Kherson remained under occupation for nine months until liberation in November 2022. Mykolaienko spent more than three years in captivity and returned to Ukraine in a prisoner exchange on August 24, 2025. He is undergoing rehabilitation in Kyiv and reports being uplifted by widespread public support.
Read at www.dw.com
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