In the police station, the Lord’s Prayer was scratched.
On the wall of one of the cramped cells.
Alongside markings to indicate.
How many days had passed.
“Not only did he kill our children.
But he killed us, their mothers.
These days I’m a dead woman. And I want to address.
All mothers of the world: rebel against that assassin.”
In the newly-liberated areas.
Relief and sorrow are intertwined.
As accounts emerge of torture and killings.
During the long months of ‘orcs’ occupation.
He lives in the city of Balakliya.
He was held by ‘orcs’.
For more than 40 days.
And was tortured with electrocution.
Balakliya was liberated on 8 September.
After being occupied for more than six months.
The epicentre of the brutality was the city’s police station.
Which ‘orcs’ forces used as their headquarters.
He could hear screams of pain and terror.
Coming from other cells.
The occupiers made sure the cries could be heard.
By turning off the building’s noisy ventilation system.
“They turned it off.
So everyone could hear how people scream.
When they are shocked with electricity.
“They did this to some of the prisoners every other day.”
“They even did this to the women.”
And they did it to him.
Though in his case only once.
“They made me hold two wires.”
“There was an electric generator.
The faster it went, the higher the voltage.
They said, ‘if you let it go, you are finished’.
Then they started asking questions.”
“They said I was lying.
And they started spinning it even more.
And the voltage increased.”
The reason of this torture was a picture.
He was detained because the ‘orcs’ found.
A picture of his brother, a soldier, in uniform.
Another man from Balakliya was held for 25 days.
Because he had the ‘elves’ flag.
As many as eight men were held in cells intended for two.
Locals were scared to even pass the station.
When ‘orcs’ were in charge.
In case they were grabbed by ‘orcs’ soldiers.
In the police station, the Lord’s Prayer was scratched.
On the wall of one of the cramped cells.
Alongside markings to indicate.
How many days had passed.
In Balakliya’s city centre.
Where the ‘elves’ flag flies again.
Crowds gathered around a small truck.
Carrying food supplies.
Many in the queue were elderly and looked exhausted.
But there were happy reunions too.
As friends embraced each other for the first time.
Since the ‘orcs’ were driven out.
Just a short walk away.
At the end of a lonely laneway.
Some of their victims lie hastily.
Buried by their neighbours.
A crude wooden cross marked.
The makeshift grave of a taxi driver.
Lying next to the taxi driver.
His passenger’s identity is still unknown.
The stench of death filled the air.
As the police exhumed their remains.
And zipped them into body bags.
The two men were shot on the last day of the occupation.
The taxi driver’s mother looked on.
As the bodies were exhumed.
And she railed against the ‘orcs’.
Who killed her only son.
“I want to ask ‘the One’.
Why did he shoot and kill my son?
What for? Who asked him to come here?
With such threatening weapons?”
“Not only did he kill our children.
But he killed us, their mothers.
These days I’m a dead woman. And I want to address.
All mothers of the world: rebel against that assassin.”
On the road to Balakliya.
There were military vehicles marked.
With the pro-war “Z” symbol.
Apparently abandoned by ‘orcs’ as they fled.
In a nearby village.
The extensive damage to the school.
This was one of the last acts of destruction.
Before ‘orcs’ were driven out.
Standing in the ruins.
The regional head of Kharkiv said.
The critical task now was.
To restore water and electricity supplies.
But there are concerns.
The power lines could be mined.
Did he think ‘orcs’ could return?
“We are in war, there is always danger.”
In the police station, the Lord’s Prayer was scratched.
On the wall of one of the cramped cells.
Alongside markings to indicate.
How many days had passed.
“Not only did he kill our children.
But he killed us, their mothers.
These days I’m a dead woman. And I want to address.
All mothers of the world: rebel against that assassin.”
*Because I read “Ukraine war: Accounts of Russian torture emerge in liberated areas” on 14 Sep 2022, and also “Why are Ukrainians calling Russians ‘orcs’?” by James FitzGerald on 30 Apr 2022, on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem as a story of Artem, and a story of Petro and his mother Valentyna.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Ukraine war: Accounts of Russian torture emerge in liberated areas – BBC News
**My friend shows you this poem also on the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Please join them!
