Witnessing the visible trauma.
In the village of Kreshchenivka.
Is one of those moments.
When this war feels utterly mindless.
The villages here are mostly destroyed.
From both their occupation and recent liberation.
Despite the eerie quiet and visible destruction.
There is movement.
“Those ‘orcs’ said they were liberators.
They just started robbing us!”
‘Orcs’ took his car, furniture and mattresses.
Nearly every house on his street has been damaged.
A tearful 69-year-old lives.
In a part of the southern Kherson region.
Which has been liberated by ‘elves’ troops.
Earlier in October.
“My head aches from all the shelling.
We almost starved to death.
In the first few months.”
There is still no power, water.
And the locals rely on volunteers for food.
Their poorly surfaced roads.
Only deteriorate.
As they continue south towards the front line.
To the right, piles of dug earth.
Stretch for miles next to the road.
An ‘elves’ defensive measure to force.
‘Orcs’ forces up a single route.
But they never made it.
This far twenty miles on.
A rusty watermelon monument marks.
The tide mark of ‘Mordor’’s advance.
The fields are dotted.
With ‘orcs’ missiles.
That have remained unexploded.
Because of the soft soil.
Witnessing the visible trauma.
In the village of Kreshchenivka.
Is one of those moments.
When this war feels utterly mindless.
The villages here are mostly destroyed.
From both their occupation and recent liberation.
Despite the eerie quiet and visible destruction.
There is movement.
‘Elves’ vehicles are repaired at the side of the roads.
Personnel carriers and tanks occasionally.
Roar back and forth.
From the direction of Kherson city.
There is significant military activity.
A logistical supply line forms an artery.
Towards ‘elves’ continued counteroffensive.
It also brings life back to the villages it weaves through.
“A lot of people far away.
From the frontline are celebrating.”
One ‘elf’ soldier says.
Everybody is a bit nervous about going to the front.
“Your heart beats.
Differently at times.
But we signed up for this.
We gave a pledge.”
“Once the firing starts.
it’s three deep breaths.
A couple of swear words.
And you move on.”
His country has the current momentum.
But he thinks they can only fully force ‘orcs’ out.
If the West continues with.
Its military support.
“The problem is that the villages are razed.
There’s no place to hide.
If we don’t have the air superiority.
It’s going to be difficult.”
“We’re running out of planes.
Three or four were shot down last week.
All this military stuff is fun and games.
Until it’s not fun and games.”
“My back is hurting already.
Because of all the equipment!”
He was mobilised in March.
And isn’t a professional soldier.
Witnessing the visible trauma.
In the village of Kreshchenivka.
Is one of those moments.
When this war feels utterly mindless.
The villages here are mostly destroyed.
From both their occupation and recent liberation.
Despite the eerie quiet and visible destruction.
There is movement.
Despite having been forced out.
You also learn a lot.
About the occupiers.
Just by looking around.
In one school which ‘orcs’ used as a base.
Their supplies, ammunition.
And rubbish are scattered.
In all directions.
These are not the traces of a disciplined force.
It’s evidence.
They’d been fighting in squalor.
And left in a hurry.
Down the street, she is.
In the kindergarten she used to run.
She lived under occupation for two months.
Before having to escape.
She’d been “blacklisted” by ‘orcs’.
Allegedly because she supplied.
Villagers with food.
And helped them evacuate.
“They just left a mess. Mess and pain.”
“When I came here for the first time after liberation.
I just stood here and cried.
It’s really hard.”
She says when she first met an ‘orc’ soldier.
He asked her “who allowed you to live so well?”
Her family’s wooden house was left nearly empty.
After ‘orcs’ took everything away.
Witnessing the visible trauma.
In the village of Kreshchenivka.
Is one of those moments.
When this war feels utterly mindless.
The villages here are mostly destroyed.
From both their occupation and recent liberation.
Despite the eerie quiet and visible destruction.
There is movement.
Fighting is starting to concentrate around.
The city of Kherson.
There’s an almost constant rumbling of artillery.
About 10 miles away.
As ‘orcs’ grip on Kherson.
Continues to weaken.
Fears grow of it deploying.
A “scorched-earth” policy.
Puppet-politicians have recently been.
“Evacuating” people.
Ukraine has accused ‘orcs’ troops of.
Preparing to blow up the nearby Kakhovka dam.
If it happened, it would lead to.
80 settlements being flooded.
They believe it indicates.
An “if we can’t have it, no-one can” approach.
For Ukraine.
Liberation here is.
Fiercely contested.
As well as complicated.
Also, if achieved.
It doesn’t bring immediate relief.
Yet in the words of the ‘elf’ soldier.
“What choice do we have”?
Witnessing the visible trauma.
In the village of Kreshchenivka.
Is one of those moments.
When this war feels utterly mindless.
The villages here are mostly destroyed.
From both their occupation and recent liberation.
Despite the eerie quiet and visible destruction.
There is movement.
*Because I read “Ukraine war: The cost of occupation in Kherson region” by James Waterhouse on 23 Oct 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 Fedir, a story of “Gadfly”, and a story of Alyona.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Ukraine war: The cost of occupation in Kherson region – BBC News
**My friend shows you this poem also on the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Please join them!