This broken city is just beginning.
To tell its stories.
And reveal how many victims.
‘Orcs’ left behind.
In the pine forest.
On the edge of the city.
Forensic teams are continuing to exhume.
Human remains from more than 440 graves.
The authorities say the dead are mostly civilians.
But one grave contained the bodies of 17 soldiers.
Some with their hands bound.
And bearing signs of torture.
The regional prosecutor said.
‘Orcs’ had killed almost all of those.
Buried here – one way or another.
Including by shooting, shelling or air strikes.
As emergency workers carry away.
Remains in a white body bag.
She looks on, caught between hope and dread.
She has come in search of her father.
Her father served with Ukraine’s 95th Airborne Battalion.
She is tearful, leaning on her husband for support.
“The last phone call we had was.
On 17th of April,” her husband says.
“The next day they moved to the frontline.
And many of his unit went missing.
We know five were killed.
Their bodies were found by another unit.”
Tormented by unanswered questions.
Her husband says.
They are almost envious of those.
Who at least have remains to bury.
“We know families.
That were in the same situation.
As we are now.
But they found the bodies.”
“And they are.
It’s hard to describe.
Happier than we are.
Because at least they found them.”
So far, the military remains.
Unearthed in the forest.
Are of soldiers from a different brigade.
To his father-in-law’s.
So she and her husband.
May have to search elsewhere.
For others, the exhumations.
Have already provided answers.
This broken city is just beginning.
To tell its stories.
And reveal how many victims.
‘Orcs’ left behind.
One widely published photo.
From the burial site showed.
A decayed hand with blue and yellow bands.
Around the wrist.
A reddish mark was.
Barely visible underneath.
They were the remains of a soldier.
Of Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanised Brigade.
When his wife.
Saw the photo.
She recognised the tattoo.
On his wrist.
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 Apr 2022, on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem as a story of Olena, her father Petro and her husband Yurii, and a story of Serhiy and his wife Oksana.
Please read the original story 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!
