As President Trump seeks a breakthrough in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, former Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) are torn.

A ceasefire deal could finally free thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who remain in Russian prisons, but it could also mean ceding land that thousands have died fighting to defend.

“The guys who have been there have been rotting,” said Oleksandr Didur, a service member in Ukraine’s 36th Separate Marine Infantry Brigade who spent 15 months in Russian captivity after being captured in April 2022.

Speaking through a translator last week, Didur said POWs are under “inhumane conditions, such as torture, psychological pressure.”

Yuliia Horoshanska, another former soldier who spent four months in Russian captivity, said it was “incredibly painful” to think about the terms being discussed to end the war.

Trump has floated “swapping lands” between Russia and Ukraine, which apparently would cede much of eastern Ukraine to Russia in exchange for Russian forces withdrawing from other parts of the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday the Ukrainian Constitution would not allow such concessions.

“I don’t want any more deaths, but I want everything that was taken away from us, given back,” Horoshanska said.

Both Didur and Horoshanska were taken captive during Russia’s siege of the southern port city of Mariupol, which has become a symbol of Putin’s cruelty and the devastation in Ukraine. Hundreds were killed in the bombing of a theater sheltering children and civilians from the war. A maternity ward was targeted in a Russian attack. At least 8,000 people are estimated to have been killed during the nearly three-month siege.

The former Mariupol POWs traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to raise awareness of the fate of their brothers- and sisters-in-arms. They are ambassadors for the Heart of Azovstal organization, an initiative helping former prisoners of war rehabilitate and reintegrate into society and the workforce.

© The Hill