Freed former Kherson mayor says Russians wanted to make him "governor"

Volodymyr Mykolaienko, a former mayor of the city of Kherson who was recently freed after three years of Russian captivity, has revealed that the Russians' main objective was to force him into collaborating and make him "governor".

Source: Mykolaienko in an interview with the media outlet Most

Quote: "The most important task for the Russians was to force me into cooperation. Even before Saldo became ‘governor’ [Volodymyr Saldo is the Russian-appointed leader of the temporarily occupied part of Kherson Oblast – ed.], they told me, ‘You can take this post.' And when they were taking me to Sevastopol, it was around 04:00-05:00, and one of the FSB officers came out and said: ‘Well, have you changed your mind? If you haven’t, you’ll go to Sevastopol now, you’ll come to your senses there in a month or two, recognise the new authorities, and work with us. And we’ll smash your Special Operations Forces to pieces in a week or two.’

It turned out it wasn’t a month or two, and they didn’t smash the Special Operations Forces.

When they appointed him [Saldo – ed.], they told me there was now a ‘governor’. I asked who it was. They handed me a printout and it said ‘Saldo’. I started laughing, and they asked, ‘Why are you laughing?’ I said, ‘Well, I know him; he once offered to teach me bad things.’ And they said, ‘He won’t mess around with us.’ And I said, ‘He’s fooled far bigger fish than that.’

Then I saw that Stremousov had appeared on their side. [Kirill Stremousov was the so-called ‘deputy head’ of the occupation ‘administration’ of Kherson Oblast. He was killed on 9 November 2022 – ed.] And then Kobets appeared. [Oleksandr Kobets was the Russian-installed mayor of Kherson while the city was occupied. He had previously worked for the KGB – ed.] They said: ‘Since you didn’t agree, we found a mayor. What can you tell us [about him]?’ I said I’d never heard of him. Then I realised that Kolykhaiev must have either been removed or left on his own. [Ihor Kolykhaiev is the mayor of Kherson who was abducted by the Russians in June 2022. He remains in captivity – ed.] That was at the end of April, just before I was sent to Sevastopol."

Details: Mykolaienko also said he was beaten repeatedly in captivity and suffered several broken ribs. He added that the occupiers once took him out to be shot.

Quote: "And then they stood me against the wall and said, ‘Now we’re going to shoot you.’ I said, ‘Go ahead,’ and stood facing the wall. They asked if I wasn’t afraid. I said I was afraid; I didn’t want to die, but I had fulfilled my family duty, continuing the line – I have two grandchildren. If the time had come, then the time had come. One of them started firing into the wall, and the others started shouting, ‘Knock it off!’"

Background: 

• Volodymyr Mykolaienko was abducted by the Russians in April 2022 and freed from Russian captivity on 24 August 2025.
• Volodymyr Saldo served three terms as Kherson’s mayor. He was elected in 2002, 2006 and 2010.
• In 2015, Saldo headed the Our Land party organisation in the city. That same year he ran for Kherson mayor but lost, remaining only a member of Kherson City Council.
• In April 2022, after the Russians had occupied Kherson, they held a meeting with local collaborators in the seized Kherson City Council building at which Saldo was appointed as the so-called "head" of Kherson Oblast State Administration.

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