The abducted mayor of Kherson, Ihor Kolykhaiev, was taken by the occupiers to the Russian Federation in June 2023.
The data about this are contained in leaked Russian databases.
Thus, the occupiers’ border service recorded that Kolykhaiev was taken through the checkpoint “Chonhar” on the administrative border with Crimea on 29 June 2023.
The leaked data also retained the vehicle number in which Ihor Kolykhaiev was transported — K454BA82.
MOST journalists checked this number and found that it belongs to a Russian prison van. It is a specially barred vehicle that security forces use to transport prisoners.
We were unable to find confirmed information about the mayor’s further movements.
Recall that Ihor Kolykhaiev was abducted by Russian military forces during the occupation of Kherson in 2022.
After the abduction, he was held in a temporary detention facility in Kherson, and then moved to the left bank of the region.
Kolykhaiev’s cellmate, Kherson resident Taras Bukriiev, said that the mayor was taken out of Chaplynka at the end of November 2022, and the Chechens who interrogated him were interested in his business.
According to some information from Ukrainians released from captivity, Kolykhaiev may currently be held in a colony in the city of Kizel in Perm Krai of Russia. His health condition, according to Kolykhaiev’s son Sviatoslav, is serious.
In mid-May this year Ihor Kolykhaiev was officially included in the lists for exchange “1000 for 1000”.