Former mayor of Kherson, Volodymyr Mykolaenko, who spent 3 years in Russian captivity, believes that the rapid occupation of the city by Russian troops in 2022 is the result of betrayal.

He said this in an interview with Radio “Kuresh”, Censor.NET reports .

“You know, I am convinced that this was treason. My clear conviction is that this is treason. And that this is absolutely no accident. Because to get through the territory of the region to Kherson so quickly, and why wasn’t that Antonivskyi bridge blown up? This is a big question for me. I remember that three weeks before the war, military exercises were held. And under the leadership of the Security Service of Ukraine, as far as I remember, the president was also present. And after that, he gave an interview that the enemy will not pass here, everything is mined here, the bridges are mined. In general, there is no chance of passage. Therefore, we understand that the president was reported and shown one thing, but in fact it turned out completely different. I’m just saying, they didn’t lay red carpets for these tanks to come,” he noted.

According to Mykolaenko, if the Antonivskyi Bridge or other bridges were blown up, the Russians would have spent a very long time crossing to the right bank of the Kherson region.

“They would have gone for a very long time, but I believe that someone was simply working off the money they received, the fifth column, the so-called, some money from the Russian Federation, simply infiltrated some governing bodies here, and probably it was thanks to this betrayal that they managed to do it so well. If they had blown up the Antonivka bridge, the next crossing would have been in Kakhovka, 60 kilometers away, and there it would also have been impossible to miss from the right bank, and the next crossing would only be in Zaporizhia. What we have now is that we cannot cross to the left bank, because the crossing is exclusively in Zaporizhia,” he added.

As a reminder, Volodymyr Mykolaenko was released from Russian captivity on August 24, 2025 as part of a prisoner exchange.

After his captivity, Mykolaenko shared his memories of torture , psychological pressure, and offers to head the city’s occupation administration.

Author:  Bohdan Rusinko Джерело: https://censor.net/ua/n3573094

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