As President Trump on Friday demanded success in a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the War (POWS) of former Ukrainian prisoners is torn.
A ceasefire deal can eventually free thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who remain in Russian jails, but it may also mean that thousands of people are fighting for rescue.
Olecasandra Didur, a service member at Ukraine’s 36th separate Marine Infantry Brigade, said, “Those who have gone there have been rotting 15 months in Russian captivity after being captured in April 2022.
Speaking through a translator last week, Didar said that pows are under “inhuman conditions, such as torture, psychological pressure”.
Yulia Horoshanka, another ex -soldier spending four months in Russian captivity, said that it was “incredibly painful” to think about the terms being discussed to end the war.
Trump floats “Swapping Lands” between Russia and Ukraine, which will apparently increase most of the eastern Ukraine for Russia in exchange for Russian forces withdrawing from other parts of the country.
Ukrainian President Volodimier Zelansky said the Ukrainian Constitution on Sunday would not allow such concessions.
Horoshanska said, “I don’t want any other death, but I want everything that was taken away from us.”
Both Dadur and Horoshanska were taken captive during the siege of the southern port city of Russia, Mariaupol, which has become a symbol of Putin’s cruelty and destruction in Ukraine. Hundreds of people killed In a theater bombing To give shelter to children and citizens from war. There was a maternity ward Tarked in a Russian attackThere are at least 8,000 people It is estimated to be killed During a siege of about three months.
Former Mariupol Pows traveled to Washington, DC last week to raise awareness about the fate of the arms of its brothers and sisters. They are ambassadors for the heart of the Ezovstal organization, which helps former war prisoners to rehabilitate and re -establish in society and workforce.
“we are [been] It is very lucky because we are those who came here especially to talk about Ukrainian veterans and remind people that there are still Marialupol Defenders in Russian captivity, “Didur said.” And we believe and hope that the United States will help us and our brothers and sisters will return. ,
In 2024, Russia was reported to be captured by about 4,000 Ukrainian prisoners of the war, although the exact number has not been accepted by Moscow or Kiev. Among the power, there are soldiers between 1,500 and 2,000, who were occupied by defending Mariupol more than three years ago.
The war transformed the city of half million people “something unfamiliar: a stuck disturbance of a place of speculation and shallow graves,” a 2024 Human rights clock report noted.
As the city fell into the Russian occupation, civic and Ukraine armed forces took shelter and established rescue in Ezovstal Steel Works, a huge industrial complex that spread over 4 square miles. While some withdrawals took place under siege, Russia caught thousands of soldiers in the acquisition of the plant in May 2022.
During that time, Didur was seriously injured during an attack from a Russian tank. He was unconscious and injured, so he was initially marked as dead. But when the symptoms of life show, Russian prisoners transferred them to medical care. He lost his left eye; Three fingers were dissected on his right hand, and his left hand is nonfunctional, which fly with debris. A shockwave broke her teeth. In captivity, he said that he suffered physical and psychological exploitation.
He said that his prisoners never bothered to establish their broken arm. “It is talking about medical aid that the Russians have provided to Ukrainian prisoners of war when they are claiming to do so,” he told the hill through a translator.
To keep his purity in the months of captivity, he trusted his athletic training, he told The Hill.
The Heart of Ezovstal was launched by billionaire Rint Akhmetov, the richest man in Ukraine and head of the business group headed by the Ilich Steel and Iron Works and Ezovstal Steel in Marriupol.
The company decided to suspend the operation of the factory and Open plants for citizens In view of Russia’s full -scale invasion. Was azovstal At that time described as a “fort in a city” By a Russian separatist sub -commander.
Apart from Ukrainian soldiers, Russia also keeps Ukrainian citizens and kidnapped in captivity Thousands of Ukrainian children What the international criminal court has understood by war crime.
“We have to remind you that not only [Ukrainian] The soldiers are in captivity. There are many citizens [in captivity]They [Russians] Children and citizens are kidnapping. They are in the same circumstances [as POWs],
Morozov said he lost close to 90 pounds in Russian captivity, a shocking amount for his 6-foot frame. The Morozov was in the infantry for the National Guard, who was injured during the Russian siege on Mariupol.
Morozov said he was firm to not surrender to the Russians, who pressured him to start his country. He attracted strength from knowing his wife and child, who survived Marriupol for Keev.
“Russia killed my wife’s parents, my brother and a lot of people in my family. My mother is alive. And I don’t care what they will do to me, I mean, to pressurize me to flip the sides. I told myself what my family is safe and whatever happens. So I was kept walking.”
Morozov was released in one of the first prisoner exchanges between Ukraine and Russia, which seriously injured, sick and preferred women. In three years of the war, the Ukrainian government has succeeded in completing some 60 prisone 1,000 Ukrainian brought back from RussiaWith citizens.
The exchange was made possible through direct dialogue that was provoked by the Trump administration in May, in its push to end the war.
The physical condition of returning Ukrainian soldiers – the head shaved, the signs of the weak body, torture and misconduct – was added to the urgency only for more swaps.
Horoshanska said he lost his desire to live in Russian jail during his months, “Because I lost everything that was important to me.”
Horoshanska was injured in a Russian air strike and was receiving medical treatment at Ezovstal when it came under Russian possession.
“The day I was injured, my entire platoon was killed. … Often I was thinking that it was a mistake that I lived, but I was thinking about my daughter and understood that he needed me.”
The Mariupol is in the south -east Donnetsk region of Ukraine, which is under large -scale Russian control, which is part of the “Land Swap” Trump.
Russia regulates about 20 percent of the Ukrainian region, including a large part of the country, the Crimean Peninsula in the south and the pockets in the northeast, Sumi and Kharkiv.
At a video address on Saturday, Zelancesi said the Constitution of Ukraine stops him from the renunciation. But more than half of Ukrainian people agreed that Kiev should be open to give some regional concessions as part of a peace deal to end the war, According to the recent gallop pole,
Putin has proposed to end the fight in exchange for Ukraine, which is handing over about one-third of the Eastern Donnetsk region that Kiev still controls, Wall Street Journal reportedThe front line will be frozen elsewhere, which includes Zaporizhjia and Kherson areas, which Russia also claim as its own.
According to the journal, a counterproposal from Europe, Ukraine will get a hand on the entire Donnetsk region in exchange for withdrawing from parts of Zaporizhia and Kherson in the south. The European plan also calls for Ironclad safety guarantee for Ukraine, including potential NATO membership.
Horooshanska reflected on difficult choices for Ukraine and was all lost.
“I want to go back home, it is true that the building, as my home, is not present. But I want to go back to the area where I was born and picked up and visited the tombs where my relatives are,” he said.
