Yahoo TV

STORY: For these Ukrainian former prisoners of war... their time spent in Russian captivity is never far from mind.

Alina Panina, who worked at Mariupol's port before the war, is among more than 200 detainees who were freed on October 17... in one of the war's biggest prisoner swaps.

"Some of us used to faint because we didn't have enough to eat. (EDIT) We were led outside once a day, for 15 minutes. That’s why some fainted. The sugar level, glucose, fell because there was not enough food."

The 25-year-old helped defend a factory in Mariupol during a months-long siege before Russian forces took the city in mid-May.

Panina says the one saving grace was that women were allowed by their captors to bake bread.

She says more than two dozen women were forced to share a room intended only for six... and that they had also been forced to drink non-potable water.

Those conditions were echoed by her former commander... Valeriy Padytel... who was freed in a swap in September.

"They didn’t treat us like humans,” the Donetsk region border guard colonel said... adding that he too faced hunger and maltreatment.

He says detainees relied on humor to survive.

"They thought that after one month, we’d ask to join them. Not a single one of us did that. Nobody lost their spirit, nobody lost faith."

Russia denies maltreatment of POWs.

It says its actions in Ukraine are a "special military operation" to protect Russian security interests.