In an interview with MOST, he recalled how Russian forces tried to coerce him into cooperation, while the only “investigative actions” were carried out with stun guns, batons, and relentless torture.
“One day more, another day less”
Mykolayenko said he was constantly beaten from the very first days:
“They tortured us all the time. One day more, another day less. In Kherson, I was held for about 16 days. And when they brought me to Sevastopol, they stripped me and asked: ‘What’s this?’ I replied: ‘I fell, kept falling for 16 days.’”
According to him, the situation in Voronezh was even worse. Prisoners were forced to run through a “corridor” of masked operatives with rubber batons.
“One of them tried to break my leg because I had a Bible with a needle as a bookmark. He pricked his finger — and for that finger he bled me nearly dry...”
Wounded and crippled prisoners
The former mayor recalled that severely wounded Ukrainian soldiers were also held in captivity. Among them was a serviceman named Musaiev, who survived a critical injury near Oleshky:
“A bullet pierced his lungs. He thought he was dying… Then he heard a dog and crawled to a village. They called an ambulance. His family had already received a death notice, but he was alive.”
Abduction and long years of captivity
Russian occupiers abducted Mykolayenko in April 2022 after he refused to cooperate with collaborator Kyrylo Stremousov. At first, he was held in Kherson, where Russian propaganda filmed videos with him. In one of them, he openly refuted claims against Roman Shukhevych, saying that since the Ukrainian state had awarded him the title Hero of Ukraine, “then he is a hero.”
Later, Mykolayenko was transferred to Crimea or Russia. In November 2022, the Red Cross finally confirmed that he was being held in captivity. In 2025, it became known that he had refused an exchange for himself in order to allow a gravely ill Ukrainian soldier to be freed instead.
Return to Ukraine
On August 24, 2025, Ukraine’s Independence Day, another prisoner exchange with Russia took place. Among those released was Volodymyr Mykolayenko. His first words upon release were a greeting to his hometown and gratitude to all who fought for the return of Ukrainian hostages.
“Stun guns and batons, the boards they beat us with — that’s all their prosecutors and lawyers,” he summed up.
Mykolayenko served as mayor of Kherson from 2014 to 2020.