‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
In 2023.
He was detained.
In Melitopol.
Just like other civilians.
He’d taken.
A photograph of.
‘Orcs’ military hardware.
Was chased down.
Was chased down.
The street.
By soldiers.
Then disappeared.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
Three months later.
His father got a call:
He had been left.
At a city hospital.
He had been left.
At a city hospital.
Exhausted and.
Severely dehydrated.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
The photographs.
His mother has shared.
From that day.
Are shocking:
The young man’s ribs.
Are clearly visible.
Are clearly visible.
Beneath his skin.
“He told me that.
He’d been.
In awful conditions.”
His mother remembers.
Talking to him that day.
“He said.
‘Mum, in a word.
I was in hell.’”
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
Over the months.
He had been held.
And interrogated.
In multiple locations.
“They were given.
Plastic plates of buckwheat.
And a glass of water.
For about 20 people.”
“When they said.
They were hungry.
They were told to shut up.
Or they’d be shot.”
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
His parents began.
Making plans to.
Get him out.
Of Melitopol to safety.
But as soon as.
He was discharged.
He was detained immediately.
And disappeared all over again.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
He was officially listed.
As missing even though.
He’d been taken away.
By soldiers.
It was another whole year.
Before his parents were told.
He was in pre-trial detention.
In Donetsk.
Another occupied city.
And charged with espionage.
Initially overjoyed.
To find him.
They now worry about.
His health:
He has paranoid schizophrenia.
Managed with medication.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
“They do not understand.
That for a person.
With such a diagnosis.
It’s already deadly.”
“It’s already deadly.
Just to be in prison.
Without his pills.”
His mother worries.
She has begun writing.
To ‘orcs’ officials.
Pleading for him.
To be included.
Pleading for him.
To be included.
On a prisoner exchange list.
On humanitarian grounds.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
*Because I read “The search for Ukraine’s missing – ‘no one could have foreseen this nightmare’” by Sarah Rainsford on 31 Jan 2025, 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 Leonid and Anna.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Ukraine’s missing people – how the disappearances erode morale
