"Now we must strive only for the victory and independence of our country," the former mayor of the Ukrainian city of Kherson, Volodymyr Mykolayenko, told DW. He spent three years in Russian captivity.
When Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 62-year-old Volodymyr Mykolayenko immediately joined the local territorial defense forces. His hometown of Kherson, where he was mayor from 2014 to 2020, was captured by Russian troops at the beginning of the war in March 2022. In April, Mykolaenko was arrested on the street and, after interrogation and torture, was imprisoned first in occupied Crimea and then in a prison in Russia.
Kherson was occupied for nine months before Ukrainian troops liberated it in November 2022. Mykolaenko spent more than three years in captivity and returned to Ukraine as part of a prisoner exchange on August 24, 2025.
DV: There is still a lively debate about why the Russians managed to capture Kherson so quickly in 2022 and why the Ukrainian army did not blow up the Antonivka bridge on the Dnieper to prevent this. You witnessed these events. When did you realize that the readiness for resistance in the city was weak?
V. Mykolaenko: When literally a few hours after the start of the war we heard shots from the left bank, we wondered what had happened, where was the resistance that our military had reported to the president a few weeks earlier. President Volodymyr Zelensky was there to check the readiness of our armed forces. Then all the military reported that the enemy could not get through here. It is clear to me that there must have been betrayal. Betrayal by people who held important positions in the Kherson region.
DV: Are you talking about betrayal by individuals, or about an organized, premeditated action?
V. Mykolaenko: I think we are talking about the fifth column of Russia. This simply happened on the orders of the Russian Federation, someone somewhere ordered demining. It is impossible that the Russian troops reached Kherson in one or two hours. Why wasn't the Antonivka Bridge blown up?
DV: You spent three years in different prisons in Crimea and in Russia. Were the conditions of detention different?
V. Mykolaenko: Yes, definitely. Borisoglebsk in the Russian Voronezh region was a real hell. It was like a torture chamber - from morning to night. During the morning inspection, they beat us, then let us into the yard, and on the way there they beat us again. And during the evening inspection - another beating.
We were in Crimea for two days. It was one of those exemplary institutions that Tatyana Moskalkova (the Russian Ombudsman - ed.) liked to come to. She organized a real show there: "Look, these are the conditions in which we keep Ukrainian prisoners". There was a TV, chess and board games, as well as books. You could rest, no one bothered us. They fed us normally.
However, in Pakino (a penal colony in the Russian Vladimir region - ed.) they tortured us by depriving us of food.
DV: It is known that during an exchange of prisoners of war in 2022, you gave up your place to a seriously wounded Ukrainian. How did the Russians react to this?
V. Mykolaenko: The Russians tried to negotiate. They said: "We want 20 of our boys for you". I flatly refused - I would never agree to such an exchange. How could I look a woman or a mother in the eye and tell her that they gave 20 men for me. We are all the same: a former mayor, a soldier, a brigade commander. And those who need it most - the sick - must be released first. After he got home, the young man called my family to tell them the story. That makes me very happy.
DV: Did you know about the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia?
V. Mykolaenko: We noticed that 78 people left our camp in eight months. This was very important for us and we were happy for each of them. I realized that maybe my turn would come too. We constantly talked about these exchanges and were convinced that Vladimir Putin would not give up his claims to our territories. 99 percent of the soldiers said that they did not want to be exchanged for territories. No Ukrainian territory should have been given up for us.
DV: What did you find out after returning to Ukraine and how much have Ukrainians changed since the war?
V. Mykolayenko: I was proud of my nation, proud of the achievements of the Ukrainians who have been repelling this invasion for three and a half years. I don't understand the men who are not at the front today. I don't understand it. Who will protect your families? Why did I, the old man, take a machine gun and try to protect them? And the young men say: "Oh, no". I know that not everyone can fight. But help the armed forces, help, work in the rear, sign up as volunteers. I think that now we should strive only for the victory and independence of our country.