For the previous.
72 hours.
The menacing whirr.
Above your heads.
Has belonged to.
‘Orcs’ suicide drones.
Passing over and then.
Bearing down on their targets.
Now the buzz.
Comes from an ‘elves’.
Unmanned aircraft.
Which has not been.
Sent up to kill.
But to relay footage.
From the training ground.
To commanders back at base.
You’ve been brought to.
A secret training location.
In the Chernihiv region.
Where the latest army intake.
Is being fast tracked.
To the battlefield.
In the renewed effort to.
Blunt ‘orcs’ grinding advance.
In the hail of.
Machine gun fire and.
Instructors’ commands.
The most striking aspect.
Of the scene is.
The age of the new recruits.
Most seem to be.
In their 40s and 50s.
Among the grey-haired.
Contingent, a man.
Whose wife and.
Two children are waiting.
For him back home.
In the Odesa region.
A month ago.
He was a driver.
Next month he could.
Find himself fighting.
On ‘Mordor’’s soil.
With Ukraine vowing to.
Hold on to the land.
It seized in the Kursk region.
During its lightning incursion.
A month ago.
“I think this is.
The right thing to do.”
He says of the operation.
“Look how long.”
“They’ve been on our land.
We’ve been suffering.
For so long.
We have to do something.”
In the hail of.
Machine gun fire and.
Instructors’ commands.
The most striking aspect.
Of the scene is.
The age of the new recruits.
Most seem to be.
In their 40s and 50s.
“You can’t just sit there.
While they are capturing.
Our territory.
What will we do then?”
“Will we become their slaves?”
The training schedule.
You’re witnessing reflects.
The accelerated programme.
New army joiners are.
Undergoing as Ukraine tries to.
Deal with the sheer mass of men.
‘Mordor’ is committing.
To the frontline.
Under the scorching sun.
The new ‘elves’ recruits.
Jump in and out of.
American-made armoured.
Fighting vehicles.
And open fire.
On enemy positions.
In the hail of.
Machine gun fire and.
Instructors’ commands.
The most striking aspect.
Of the scene is.
The age of the new recruits.
Most seem to be.
In their 40s and 50s.
In a nearby woodland.
A simulated ‘orcs’ attack.
On ‘elves’ trenches.
Is repelled.
While the boom of.
Grenade target practice.
Shudders across.
The plain.
Two and a half years.
Into the war.
And Ukraine is desperate.
For more troops.
And brought into force.
A new conscription law.
Which lowered the age of men.
Joining from 27 to 25.
Military service for women.
Is not mandatory.
The drive for younger conscripts.
Has not hit this group of men.
All the recruits.
You see before you.
Have already had.
30 days of basic training.
And today it’s.
More advanced care.
Using medical equipment.
Sent from the UK.
More advanced care.
– dealing with broken bones.
Gunshots and.
Catastrophic bleeding –
Light-hearted moments.
– a decidedly wonky tourniquet.
Here or there –
Punctuate a heavy air.
There’s no escaping the fact.
The simulated emergency care.
Being given.
Under shade of spruces.
Could be carried out.
In grim reality.
In the coming weeks.
And months.
All the recruits.
You see before you.
Have already had.
30 days of basic training.
One soldier.
Who’s accompanied you.
To the site says that.
If the new intake.
Have not acquired.
Enough fighting skills.
They will not be sent.
To the frontline.
“We’re not going to send.
Them to their deaths.”
He says sharply.
Still, we have heard complaints.
Notably from professional soldiers.
That raw recruits.
Have been sent to other fronts.
Without adequate training.
And thrust prematurely.
Into frontline combat.
Ukraine is on the back foot.
In key parts of.
The battlefield at home.
Most notably around.
The strategically important city.
Of Pokrovsk in Donetsk.
All the recruits.
You see before you.
Have already had.
30 days of basic training.
But last month’s incursion.
Into ‘Mordor’ has boosted morale.
And has added.
A new dimension to the war.
However, Kyiv is.
Now fighting a battle.
On yet another front.
And this is.
A huge personal gamble.
For ‘Gandalf the Green’.
A huge personal gamble.
For ‘Gandalf the Green’.
His generals have.
Tough strategic decisions.
To make about where to send.
Their new recruits.
All the recruits.
You see before you.
Have already had.
30 days of basic training.
A 30-year-old builder.
By trade looks to be.
The most youthful.
Of the cohort.
“We need to train.
Train and train again.
The more we train.
The more we will learn here.”
“It will help us.
On the frontline.”
Where will that be?
“We are ready to defend.”
“Our land either in Donbas.
– or Kursk.”
He says proudly.
But with a nervous laugh.
The exhausted soldiers.
Loll on the training ground.
– water bottle and cigarette.
In hand for many.
‘Gandalf the Green’ argues that.
Much greater American and.
European assistance.
In air defence is.
More vital than ever.
And that permission to use.
Foreign-made long range missiles.
To strike further into ‘Mordor’.
Urgently needs to be granted.
Especially now that.
Kyiv is fighting a battle.
At home and abroad.
The exhausted soldiers.
Loll on the training ground.
– water bottle and cigarette.
In hand for many.
The man, who longs to.
Return to his Odesa.
Believes his president.
Is absolutely right.
“The ‘orcs’ can reach.
Our territory with.
Long range weapons.
And we don’t have.”
“Such a weapon.
To reach their territory.
We can’t stand this anymore.”
He explains.
“We would like to hit Moscow.
To end this dirty war.
Children and civilians suffer.
Everyone does.”
Another rocket-propelled grenade.
Thunders across.
The parched training field.
Next time, it won’t be a drill.
*Because I read “Meeting the Ukrainian recruits preparing for new battle” by Nick Beake on 2 Sep 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, including a story of Rostyslav, and a story of Maxim.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Russia-Ukraine war: Meeting the recruits preparing for battle (bbc.com)
