Year: 2023

“I want to thank from here. From this place of victory. Each of our soldiers. For these 500 days.”   ‘Gandalf the Green’. Was shown arriving. On Zmiinyi Island by boat. And leaving flowers at a memorial.   ‘Gandalf the Green’. Called Zmiinyi Island. A “place of victory”. That would never be reconquered.   ‘Gandalf […]

In the small town of Balakliya. On a patch of land next to an apartment block. His team have already found. Six anti-personnel mines.   They’d earlier uncovered. Around 200 nearby. “My family calls me every morning. To tell me to watch where I tread.”   “One of our guys lost. His foot last year.” […]

An ‘elf’ soldier drags himself. Through the long grass. One leg trailing limply. Behind him.   Seconds later. A flash of bright orange. And a cloud of white smoke. Mark the spot.   Just a few metres. Away where yet. Another land mine. Has been triggered.   As a second badly wounded soldier. Pulls himself […]

“We’re like rats. We can survive anything.” Said a 73-year-old. Retired teacher.   As she and her husband. Slowly dragged. The drenched contents. Of their small cottage outside.   At one point the flood waters reached. The roof of their home. On Tchaikovsky Street. Close to the Dnipro River.   But now only a few […]

In a shrinking, brackish pool of water. Within earshot of Ukraine’s front lines. Two small fish gasped and flopped. In the midday heat.   Around them, vast expanses of. Mud and rock were exposed to the sun. A huge grain barge lay. Sprawled across a nearby sandbank.   Water snakes and frogs. Slithered through. The […]

Novodarivka was recaptured. On 4 June. Writes the Zaporizhzhya. Detached territorial defence brigade.   The brigade says. “Multiple attempts” by the ‘orcs’ side. To snatch back the settlement. Since that day have been unsuccessful.   “The brigade’s units. Continue to increase. Their success! Victory will be ours!”     Storozheve, in the west of the […]

Walking through Storozheve. They unfurl a flag, chanting: “Glory to the marine brigade… Glory, glory glory.”   A video released by Ukraine’s. 35th Separate Marine Brigade. Shows servicemen – which they claim. To have liberated from ‘Mordor’.   During the soldiers’ search of the village. They find an abandoned vehicle. With a “Z” painted on […]

‘Elves’ forces are advancing. Along three or four axes. In southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia. And Donetsk Oblasts.   On the axis running along. The Mokri Yaly River. The ‘elves’ aren’t just advancing. They’re thundering.   Rolling fast along the unpaved road. Threading north to south from the town. Of Velyka Novosilka toward Makarivka. 10 miles away. […]

The country’s blue-and-yellow national flag. On destroyed buildings in Neskuchne. The loud booming sound of. Nearby shelling can also be heard.   Earlier this week. A video emerged. Purportedly showing. Two ‘elves’ soldiers raising it.     Out of this cluster of four. Settlements in the eastern Donetsk region. Neskuchne has seen. The heaviest fighting. […]

The ‘elves’ flag is placed. On a building in Blahodatne. One of the villages Ukraine says. It has recaptured from ‘Mordor’.   Troops are launching. Probing attacks. While most of ‘elves’ forces are. Being held in reserve.   Waiting for a big enough opening. In ‘orcs’ defences. To launch a main attack. And try to […]