This broken city is just beginning.
To tell its stories.
And reveal how many victims.
‘Orcs’ left behind.
The occupiers had a menu of abuses.
For those held in the dank basement cells.
Of a makeshift ‘orcs’ prison in Izyum.
There was more than one type of torture.
He experienced most of them.
The pensioner recounts the abuses he suffered:
Electrocution, beatings, broken bones.
And needles inserted beneath the skin.
Sitting in a ward in the city’s main hospital.
Which was badly damaged by shelling.
His left arm is bandaged and in a sling.
He is weary, but his voice is unwavering.
“They beat me everywhere.
They broke my arm.
One ‘orc’ was holding it.
And another one beat it with a pipe.”
“They beat me to the point.
Where I didn’t feel anything.”
“They used an electric current.
On my fingertips – how they burned.”
Then there were the needles.
Pushed into his back.
“They were long and they put them.
Under my skin.”
“Here and here.”
Gesturing to his shoulders.
“I was taken from there half-dead.
When our forces liberated this place.”
That was on 11 September.
When ‘elves’ forces swept into the city.
Ending more than five months of ‘orcs’ rule.
“They tortured me for 12 days.”
During the occupation ‘orcs’ used the city.
As a launchpad for attacks.
In the eastern Donbas region.
And as a key logistics base.
He was detained along with others.
Who ‘orcs’ suspected of sabotage.
The prisoners were hooded.
Sharing the cramped conditions and the abuse.
“Sometimes they took someone.
From their cells.
Two or even three times.
In a day.”
“All of those held.
With me were tortured.”
“I saw someone being carried out.
I think he was dead.”
During his time in the cells.
“Of course. I had to pray.
Anyone would be praying there.”
He wears a cross around his neck.
This broken city is just beginning.
To tell its stories.
And reveal how many victims.
‘Orcs’ left behind.
The torture took place.
In the police station in Izyum.
Like much of Izyum it was shelled.
By ‘orcs’ before they took the city.
In disarray.
With some doors missing.
And windows blown out.
Darkness closes in two lower floors of cells.
Most of the cells.
Are small and bare.
Apart from grimy bedding.
And some discarded clothing.
In one cell.
Someone has etched.
Lines on the wall.
Recording the length of their captivity.
An ‘elves’’ soldier says.
“It seems like.
All these walls are.
Full of pain and suffering.”
This broken city is just beginning.
To tell its stories.
And reveal how many victims.
‘Orcs’ left behind.
“They attach electrodes.
And connect a current.
And you begin to shake.”
“I was falling from the chair.”
“The pain was too strong.
It was pitch black.
They tortured us.
In complete darkness.”
“They had head lamps.
I asked my cellmates.
How long I had been absent.
And they told me 40 minutes.”
“I think that you black out.
After 15 to 20 minutes.”
This man was held in the same cells.
In the prison abandoned by ‘orcs’ in Izyum.
This broken city is just beginning.
To tell its stories.
And reveal how many victims.
‘Orcs’ left behind.
*Because I read “’Walls full of pain’: Russia’s torture cells in Ukraine” by Orla Guerin on 21 Sep 2022, and also “Why are Ukrainians calling Russians ‘orcs’?” by James FitzGerald on 30 April 2022, on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem as a story of Mykhailo and a story of Maxim.
Please read the original story and look at the photos on the BBC news:
‘Walls full of pain’: Russia’s torture cells in Ukraine – BBC News
**My friend shows you this poem and three other my poems together about the same resource on the BBC news also on the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Kurama (Japan). The poems about events in Izium (war in Ukraine 2022) – Мала Сторінка (storinka.org)
Please join them!
