“During the next exchange of prisoners, former mayor of Kherson, 65-year-old Vladimir Nikolaenko returned to Ukraine. He was abducted shortly after the occupation of the city by Russian military. Nikolaenko is a participant of the Euromaidan. In May 2014, he was elected mayor of Kherson, and in 2015 he was re -elected, lost his regular elections in five years and left this position. Once in office”, – WRITE ON: ua.news
During the next exchange of prisoners, former mayor of Kherson, 65-year-old Vladimir Nikolaenko returned to Ukraine. He was abducted shortly after the occupation of the city by Russian military.
Nikolaenko is a participant of the Euromaidan. In May 2014, he was elected mayor of Kherson, and in 2015 he was re -elected, lost his regular elections in five years and left this position.
Having entered the mayor, Nikolaenko actively spoke in the media and criticized the pro -Russian forces, and shortly before the full -scale invasion of the Russian Federation joined the terroboron.
Staying in Kherson after the occupation, Nikolaenko first received proposals for cooperation and then threats from local collaborators. On April 18, 2022 he was abducted.
According to human rights activists, Nikolayenko was soon transported to the Crimea, and later to the colony in the Vladimir region. Official charges were not reported.
Nikolaenko’s niece, with reference to the liberated Ukrainian military, told that in 2022 the former mayor was planned to be exchanged, but instead he asked to release a seriously ill military who was sitting in the same cell, and had a gangrene. Since then, as the niece claimed, the Russian side refused to include Nikolayenko in the exchange lists.
On August 24, Nikolaenko returned home. Immediately after his release, he thanked all the organizers of the exchange, and called the day of his release his “second birthday” and expressed his joy about the fact that this day falls on the Independence Day of Ukraine.
Ukraine also returned from the Russian captivity of journalists Dmitry Khiluk and Mark Kaliusz, exmer Kherson Volodymyr Mykolaenko, Armed Forces, National Guard and Border Guards.
As part of the prisoners of prisoners on July 14, Ukraine She turned Three civilian doctors – Igor Kirjanenko, Igor Nazarenko and Yuri Shapovalov.
On July 23, Ukraine and the Russian Federation conducted the ninth stage of the exchange of prisoners, which was agreed in Istanbul .
