In the relative privacy.
Of the main square.
Of Kramatorsk.
In eastern Ukraine.
A combat medic thinks.
The military has been.
Dishonest about.
What signing up means.
He argues that.
It would be more effective.
If recruiters told.
New soldiers.
That the first six months.
Are “super hard”.
But that they would.
Then be trained for.
More specific roles.
“The infantry is.
The hardest job.
In the military.”
In the relative privacy.
Of the main square.
Of Kramatorsk.
In eastern Ukraine.
A combat medic thinks.
The military has been.
Dishonest about.
What signing up means.
Tired as he is.
The idea of fighting alongside.
A petrified conscript in a trench.
Is not an appealing one.
He also thinks a lack of.
Transparency about the realities.
Of the battlefield is further putting.
Men off from registering to fight.
“What if this war.
Lasts 10 years?”
“What if this war.
Lasts 10 years?”
Back in Kyiv.
As you stroll down.
Her normal jogging route.
Local MP explains to you.
Why she abstained on.
The mobilisation bill vote.
Her partner serves.
As a frontline medic.
“I spend countless nights.
Worrying where he is.
It’s the experience of.
Millions of ‘elves’.”
She thinks there should be.
More of a focus on rotation.
Arguing Ukraine has.
Enough men of.
A fighting age to swap.
With the 500,000.
Or so who are.
Currently fighting.
Back in Kyiv.
As you stroll down.
Her normal jogging route.
Local MP explains to you.
Why she abstained on.
The mobilisation bill vote.
Her partner serves.
As a frontline medic.
“There are highly trained soldiers.
Who can’t be swapped.
But what about the people?
In trenches?”
“It takes time.
To train them.
But what if this war.
Lasts for 10 years?”
“We can’t pretend to.
Rely on the same people.
Who started serving.
On day one.”
*Because I read “Ukraine War: ‘If we go home, a lot of inexperienced soldiers will die’” by James Waterhouse on 6 May 2024, 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 Illia and a story of Inna Sovsun.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Ukraine War: ‘If we go home, a lot of inexperienced soldiers will die’ (bbc.com)
**My friend kindly shows you this poem in one page of the Ukrainian website for their children and others!
Please join them! You can read my 100 poems here at once.
