Almost on his birthday – ex-head of Donetsk border detachment’s press service Eduard Nykytenko returns from captivity

On February 4, Mariupol border guard Eduard Nykytenko celebrated his birthday. He celebrated conditionally due to being in captivity. And the very next day, he set foot on free Ukrainian soil.

Eduard Nykytenko was released from captivity as part of another exchange of prisoners of war, writes the Mariupol publication 0629.com.ua.

Nykytenko had headed the press service of the Donetsk border detachment for many years.

In 2014, he had to resist numerous information attacks by the enemy on the border detachment. Russian information and psychological operations spread rumors in Mariupol that “Bandera members,” “fascists,” and “Nazis” had arrived in Novoazovsk, at the border post, so to speak, to seize the border. So periodically, the separatists, both male and female, who gathered under the walls of the Mariupol City Council, threatened to go either to Novoazovsk or to the border unit located in the Prymorskyi District of Mariupol “to deal with the Bandera members.”

Well, Eduard Nykytenko had to “deal” with the aggressive people.

During the full-scale invasion, Eduard stood up to defend his hometown together with his fellow border guards. And he was captured.

He spent almost three years in enemy captivity…