Volodymyr Tsema-Bursov became a walking skeleton in Russian captivity.
He is critical of the US president receiving his Russian counterpart in Alaska.
– Trump should not meet such a villain face to face, says Tsema-Bursov.
Trump: Wants new meeting with Putin and Zelensky
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Ukrainian ex-prisoner of war Volodymyr Tsema-Bursov, 43, survived 20 months of torture and starvation in Russian prison camps. When he was released, he had lost 41 kilograms and looked like a skeleton.
Tsema-Bursov does not like that Donald Trump has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to a meeting in Alaska on Friday, where the future of Ukraine will be discussed without Ukrainian participation.
– Trump is the one who has to take care of the war, that's all. But he shouldn't do it in such a way. He recognizes Putin as an equal when he meets him. It's not appropriate to meet such a person.
Tsema-Bursov thinks Trump should meet with the Ukrainian president instead, and cancel the meeting with Putin:
– He should know his place.
Before the Alaska meeting was announced, Trump gave Putin a ten-day deadline to end the war or face sanctions. Now it seems that's no longer the case?
– I hope Trump has some kind of plan.
What do your Ukrainian friends say about the meeting on Friday?
– Some Ukrainians I hang out with have stopped trying to understand what is happening. They just say, “We’ll see what happens.” That’s because things are changing so quickly and suddenly. But almost no one I know believes that Ukraine can regain lost territory through military means. And even if we were to get our old Ukrainian territory back, it is in ruins now.
Tsema-Bursov advocates a solution with frozen border lines – instead of Putin’s illogical proposal that Ukraine withdraw from areas it currently holds and hand them over to the Russians:
– The best thing would be to freeze the border lines where they are right now.
Do you think a majority of Ukrainians want to see frozen borders?
– The Russians are only making small progress on the front, while Ukraine is resisting. But to reduce the bloodshed, an agreement on frozen border lines is needed now. Most people I know think so. After that, the outside world must pressure Russia with economic methods.
But Putin doesn't want frozen borders, does he?
– He must be forced to do so. Then the US and the EU must come together and strike back at Russia with financial methods. I see an end like in World War I, where Russia collapsed.
In the worst case, he sees a Hitler scenario, where territorial concessions gradually led to the start of World War II. Therefore, he also does not agree to any occupied territories going to Russia.
– We will not let them go under any conditions.
Does your wife Inna agree with you?
– No, she is more pessimistic and believes that Ukraine should make concessions. She thinks that Russia will leave us alone then. I don't think so, says Volodymyr Tsema-Bursov.
Oleksandr Goncharenko, mayor of the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, is more subdued than Tsema-Bursov ahead of Trump's meeting with Putin:
– It's difficult to say anything before the meeting. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Are you optimistic about the meeting?
“We obviously want to believe the best,” says Oleksandr Gontcharenko.
