Azov fighter Serhii Mykhailenko freed from Russian captivity

Mariupol defender Serhii Mykhailenko has been freed from Russian captivity as part of a prisoner exchange held on 5 February. He had been imprisoned in a penal colony in Siberia after an illegal show trial.

Source: Serhii's wife Tamara Koriahina in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia (Life)

Details: The 27-year-old defender is now preparing for surgery.

Serhii joined the Azov Brigade in 2019. He defended his native city of Mariupol after the start of the full-scale invasion. While Tamara was trying to survive in the besieged city, Serhii sustained shrapnel wounds to his legs from an aerial bomb.

His phone was destroyed and he lost contact with his wife. Despite hospital treatment, some shrapnel remained in the fighter's body.

On 16 May 2022, using a friend's phone, Serhii messaged his beloved telling her not to worry and said he had received an order to go into captivity.He survived the terrorist attack on the Olenivka prison camp and was later unlawfully held in a pre-trial detention centre in Donetsk.

For a long time, Tamara knew nothing about how or where her husband was, until she saw him in a video in the Russian media. In the video, he confessed under duress to crimes he had not committed.

Quote from Tamara: "When I watched the video, I couldn't believe it was my Serhii. He was simply unrecognisable. I heard him stuttering. I suspect this is the result of torture. I cried all day: it felt as though a part of my soul had died inside me."

Details: In January 2024, Serhii was sentenced to life imprisonment in a maximum-security penal colony on trumped-up charges. He was subsequently held in torture facilities in Siberia.

Meanwhile Tamara was working to bring her beloved home, even visiting Pope Francis in the Vatican with other prisoners' families.

Quote from lawyer Olena Pribitkova: "She fought for his return like a lioness – tirelessly, bravely and selflessly. She lived only with the hope that they would be reunited on their native Ukrainian soil. And she succeeded! This is a true story of a great love that overcomes all obstacles!"

Background:

• On 5 February, the first prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine in the past five months took place and 157 civilians and service members returned from Russian captivity, including marine Ruslan Kurtmallaiev.
• Serhii is one of 15 defenders sentenced to life imprisonment who were freed from Russian captivity in this exchange.

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