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Ihor Kolykhaev was born and lived his entire life in Kherson, with the exception of one episode — studying at the university. In 1988-1993 he studied at the Naval Institute of Radio Electronics in Peterhof. With a diploma from the institute, Kolykhaev immediately returned to Kherson.
He came to Russia again in the 2010s, for a graduates reunion. In the early 2000s, Ihor had two children — a son Svyatoslav and a daughter Anastasia. He never worked in his specialty. In Kherson, he took on various jobs, and later got involved in the agricultural business.
According to his son, his father invested a lot in land reclamation — an important irrigation system for the Kherson region. After work, Kolykhaev played futsal avidly. He even created his own futsal club in Kherson — “Prodeksim” — which became the champion of Ukraine for four consecutive years, from 2017 to 2020. In 2021, the team won the Ukrainian Cup and represented the country in European competitions.
In 2015, Kolykhaev decided to change his life. He went into politics and became a deputy of the Kherson Regional Council. It was a surprise for the family. Svyatoslav says that they did not know that his father was running for office. They found out when he was already elected.
“This is a person who does not share his plans. We learn about his decision post factum,” explains the son.
In 2020, Ihor Kolykhaev was elected mayor of Kherson.
Ihor Kolykhayev at the Ukrainian Futsal Championship in 2018. Ihor Kolykhayev at a meeting of the Kherson Regional Council in 2017.
Facebook / Ігор Колихаєв
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The Kolykhaev family met the Great War in Kherson.
Svyatoslav says that despite the fact that Ihor was the city mayor, the family did not know “about the date and time of the invasion”, and no one told them to leave the city immediately.
At the same time, they understood that the situation was tense. 2 or 3 days before the invasion, special services began to leave the city. Svyatoslav lived in the center (not far from the central court and police department) and saw with his own eyes from his balcony how they packed up and left the city.
When the Russians finally occupied Kherson in early March, Ihor Kolykhaev decided to stay in the city. He posted a video on social media asking the central authorities to clearly explain to the mayor how to act during the occupation.
Mayor Ihor Kolykhayev and his team at work, March 1, 2022.
Facebook / Ігор Колихаєв
In early March, Kolykhayev reported that he had agreed with armed men who had come to the city council on the rules of life in the city under occupation: a curfew, the operation of public transport, and the entry of vehicles with food and medicine.
At the same time, he denied that these were negotiations and did not specify who these people were. On March 6, 2022, Kolykhayev received the Order of Courage, III degree, from President Volodymyr Zelensky for his contribution to the defense of Kherson from Russian troops.
He also asked Ukrainian and world media to help organize a green corridor for Kherson residents to evacuate the wounded and take out the dead. Kolykhayev constantly tried to organize the supply of food and humanitarian aid to the city, called on citizens to go to work to "support the local economy", and announce “volunteer clean-ups”. He personally went around pharmacies to find out which medicines were missing or not available at all.
On March 24, Kolykhayev reported that the Ukrainian flag, which had fallen after the shelling, had been raised again over the city council.
Ihor Kolykhayev at the hospital where Kherson residents brought humanitarian aid, February 27, 2022. During the occupation, Kolykhayev himself checked which goods were in short supply or not available at all in the city. The Ukrainian flag above the Kherson City Council, which was raised again on March 24, 2022 after it fell due to shelling.
Facebook / Херсонська міська рада; Facebook / Ігор Колихаєв
In April, the Russians changed the leadership of Kherson and appointed an administration loyal to them. On April 26, Kolykhayev wrote that he refused to cooperate with the occupation administration.
In a letter to the Ukrainian authorities, he asked for “instructions for further actions”, because without them “the city could turn into chaos”. Kolykhayev himself and some of the city hall employees continued to work in another building.
“Many people think: ʼWhy didn’t they take him away on the spot?’ Although, they tried for months to persuade him to cooperate, because my father had strong support from the Kherson residents and was beneficial to them,” says his son Svyatoslav.
Letters from Igor Kolykhayev to the Ukrainian authorities, in which he reports that the Russians have removed him from his duties as mayor, and asks for an explanation of what to do next.
Facebook / Ігор Колихаєв
According to Svyatoslav, his father understood that sooner or later the Russians would come for him. This became obvious after they abducted the former mayor of Kherson Volodymyr Mykolaenko in April.
That same month, Svyatoslav, together with part of his family, left Kherson in an evacuation column via Mykolaiv, from where it was still possible to reach the territory controlled by Ukraine. Ihor stayed because he believed that he “could not manage a city under occupation from a safe office in Kyiv”.
Former Kherson City Mayor Volodymyr Mykolaenko, who was abducted by the Russians in April 2022. He was released from captivity during an exchange on August 24, 2025.
In June 2022, shortly before the abducting, Kolykhayev found himself in a controversial situation because he had ordered the collection of information about residents who had left Kherson. The heads of district councils and condominiums were asked to count how many people had left each entrance.
At that time, Kherson feared that Russian soldiers would move into empty apartments. Kolykhayev explained that the census was needed to prepare for the heating season and calculate utility costs.
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On June 28, 2022, Kolykhayev arrived at the “office” where he had moved with his colleagues. In the middle of the day, the Russians arrived, handcuffed him and the other men, put bags over their heads, and took them away in an unknown direction.
At first, Ihor was held in solitary confinement in the Kherson temporary detention center, separate from other detainees. His family asked acquaintances who remained in the city to send him food, clothing, and medicine.
According to Svyatoslav, Ihor has asthma and allergies, so the medicine was necessary. Whether these messages reached him, the family does not know. Since then, they have not seen Ihor, not even in a photo, and have not received a single letter from him.
The premises of the temporary detention center in Kherson, where Ihor Kolykhayev was held for the first time after his abducting.
Ganna Mamonova / "Babel"; Ґрати / Ніна Ляшонок
Only in 2023 did the Russian Ministry of Defense confirm that it was holding Kolykhaev captive, but included him in the lists of prisoners of war, even though he is a civilian.
All these years, the family has learned about Igor from released prisoners. This way, it was possible to recreate Kolykhaevʼs approximate route: at different times he was in Kherson, Hola Prystan, Chaplynka, Chonhar, Novotroitske, Rostov and Taganrog.
According to the latest data, he is now in the Perm Territory.
According to Svyatoslav, in some places of detention in the Kherson region, his father was treated more loyally, because he was well known by local collaborators (in particular, the guards of the local pre-trial detention centers, who had gone over to the Russian side).
For example, in Chaplynka, thanks to such guards, it was sometimes possible to organize transfers. But this was not the case everywhere. From the Kherson region, Kolykhayev was transferred to Taganrog, where he spent 8 months in a damp solitary cell. There he became very ill.
Released prisoners from the pre-trial detention center No. 3 in the city of Kizel (Perm Krai), where Kolykhayev is currently being held, describe to Babel as a place of part-strict regime.
According to them, conditions there have softened somewhat after inspections that began after the deaths in this pre-trial detention center of journalist Viktoria Roshchyna and the mayor of Dniprorudne Yevhen Matveyev in 2024.
Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who was abducted by the Russians in August 2023. She died in Russian captivity on September 19, 2024. The exact cause of death was not established, but numerous traces of torture were found on her body. Dniprorudne Mayor Yevhen Matveyev, who was abducted by the Russians in March 2022. He died in a Russian pre-trial detention center in September 2024 as a result of multiple injuries, including broken ribs and lung damage.
Facebook / Бучанська міська рада
Prisoners are forced to stand for 16 hours a day. They are only allowed to sit down during meals, and the rest of the time they are watched by video surveillance cameras. If they sit down for even a minute, then they are punished. They are also punished if the Russians notice that the prisoners are talking to each other.
Prisoners are also taken on so-called “walks”, to cells on the top floor, where part of the roof is missing. The temperature there is the same as outside: in the fall — to 0°C and below, and in the winter to −20°C. According to released prisoners, the “walks” last up to 2 hours. They began to shiver from the cold, and some had panic attacks. Squatting and jumping did not help to warm up.
People develop ulcers and other problems with their feet due to constant standing. According to released prisoners, there was a period when Kolykhaev could not even stand up.
“His leg was bandaged from the knee down. Then he took off the bandage, and it was clear that his leg was very swollen, the skin was cracking, and fluid was leaking out. He tried to gather it with toilet paper or a bandage,” says Ihor, who was in the same cell with Kolykhaev in 2024.
“He contacted the administration, and asked to take him to the doctors, but there was no treatment. Then they started giving him some pills. It is not known what kind [of pills], because you just open your mouth at the command, and they throw a pill to you, and that’s it.”
Due to problems with his foot, Kolykhaev’s temperature also rose to 39-40 degrees.
Ukrainian prisoners of war who returned from Russian captivity with leg ulcers, swelling, and other problems due to inadequate conditions of detention and lack of medical care.
Although, he had no concessions. Like other prisoners, Kolyhkayev was forced to do physical exercises, including running in place for half an hour. He was also subjected to “traditional” beatings. As those released from captivity say, beatings are inevitable every time you leave your cell, no matter where you are taken.
Once, Kolykhayev was taken from the general cell for 9 days. He spent all this time in a “cell for seriously ill patients”, where conditions were slightly better and prisoners could [at least] lie down. He felt a little better, but after hours of standing, he fell ill again.
Former prisoner of war Stanislav Bohdanov, who was in neighboring cells with Kolykhayev in 2025, says that he could be called to see a doctor two or three times a week. The colony doctors said that Kolykhayev had erysipelas, a bacterial skin infection. If left untreated, the infection spreads and leads to blood poisoning, and in severe cases, to death.
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All these years, Ihor Kolykhaev has been in Russian captivity. Russia has not charged him. According to the released prisoners, the Russians have repeatedly persuaded Kolykhaev to cooperate while in captivity, but he has not agreed.
Meanwhile, his son Svyatoslav has written letters to Volodymyr Zelensky and the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as to SBU, GUR, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, and other institutions.
He says that he receives mostly formal responses, in which only the date changes.
Svyatoslav says that in May 2026, a person involved in his fatherʼs case spoke to the Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets on the phone. During the conversation, he was informed that Ihor Kolykhayev had been included in the lists for exchange in the "1000 for 1000" format.
On August 20, the same person met with Lubinets in person together with Svyatoslavʼs mother. At the meeting, they were told that no requests for Kolykhayevʼs exchange had been submitted in 2026.
However, in October, the media spread information that during the years of the full-scale war, the Office of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights had sent 4 requests to Russia regarding Kolykhayev, and one of them in 2026. All of them remained unanswered.
On October 23, Babel sent a request to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets to find out whether Ihor Kolykhayev is on the lists for exchange.
After the material was published, on October 29, we received a response. The Ombudsmanʼs Secretariat noted that Dmytro Lubinets does not form or approve lists for exchange. This is done by the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
They also confirmed that Kolykhayevʼs wife did indeed have personal receptions, during which she was shown the appeals that the Ombudsmanʼs Office sent to the Russian side regarding her husband. At the same time, the Secretariat emphasized that the mere fact of submitting these appeals does not confirm that Kolykhayev is on the official list for exchange.
Ihor Kolykhayev is 55 years old. He celebrated his four birthdays in Russian captivity. Although not at home, his son Svyatoslav, his daughter Anastasia, his wife, his sister, 85-year-old father, and 83-year-old mother are waiting for him in Ukraine. There is no one left from the Kolykhayev family in Kherson.
Kolykhayev passed on the news through his cellmates that he was “waiting”.
“There are a lot of rumors that my dad collaborated with the Russians. This is a serious accusation that must be proven in court. Although, to prove it, my father must first be returned from captivity. He is now paying for his choice with his freedom, and this shows his position quite clearly,” says Svyatoslav.
Ihor Kolykhaev with his son Svyatoslav.
Особисті архіви Святослава Колихаєва / «Бабель»