Serhiy Mykhailenko Returns Home
Serhiy Mykhailenko, a Ukrainian serviceman known by the call sign Kiba, has come back to Ukraine after spending three and a half years in Russian captivity. The final two years of his imprisonment were served in Correctional Colony No. 18, a facility nicknamed the "Polar Owl," located above the Arctic Circle. Mykhailenko took part in the defense of Mariupol and the Azovstal steel plant, and according to him, the prisoner exchange took place on February 5.
Conditions Inside the Colony
While incarcerated in Colony No. 18, Mykhailenko witnessed horrifying realities. His cell measured roughly 15 square meters, and the prison population included:
- serial killers
- rapists
- pedophiles
One inmate had been convicted of 12 murders, while another was Alexander Pichushkin, the notorious "Bitsa Park Maniac" who killed at least 49 people in Moscow's Bitsa Park. Pichushkin had aimed to murder 64 individuals, mirroring the number of squares on a chessboard, and he typically bludgeoned his victims to death with a hammer. Mykhailenko also encountered a cannibal—a thin, elderly, short man who had killed people and preserved their flesh.
Inside the colony, Russian propaganda painted Azov fighters as dangerous Nazis. Mykhailenko’s cellmates tried to equate themselves with Ukrainian prisoners of war, demanding he confess to eliminating terrorist leaders in Donbas, such as Zakharchenko, Givi, and Motorola. One cellmate remarked:
“There are civilians, and then there are people like you and me.”
Mykhailenko replied: “Dude, you’re a rapist, you kill people, and you’re lumping us together? As if we’re both murderers and outcasts of society.”
Now 27 years old, Mykhailenko is undergoing rehabilitation in Ukraine and preparing for surgery. Another defender, Dmytro Rasti Kanuper, spent over two years in Russian captivity. Mykhailenko’s return highlights the ongoing prisoner exchange efforts amid the current conflict.
Mykhailenko’s return to Ukraine underscores the critical importance of prisoner exchange processes in the context of the ongoing war. It also sheds light on the severe conditions Ukrainian soldiers endure in captivity and the challenges they face even after coming home. Rehabilitation and recovery for such fighters are essential to helping them rebuild their lives.