‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
The ‘orcs’ came for the couple.
While they were sleeping.
Bursting into their home.
Late at night.
It was 25 September.
2023.
In Melitopol.
South-eastern Ukraine.
Where the couple.
Had grown up.
Fallen in love.
And married.
Now their city was.
Occupied by ‘orcs’ forces.
The men were armed.
And dressed in black.
As some began.
Searching the house.
Seizing devices.
And documents.
Others led the couple.
Away in handcuffs.
The couple then vanished.
Without trace.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
Ukraine has listed.
More than 61,000 people.
As missing.
As missing.
Since the start of.
‘Orcs’ full-scale invasion.
In 2022.
Both soldiers and civilians.
When troops go missing.
In action.
There is a chance.
They might eventually.
There is a chance.
They might eventually.
Be included.
In a prisoner-of-war exchange.
But civilians are returned.
Very rarely:
The ‘orcs’ don’t usually.
Admit to holding them.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
Four months after.
She was detained.
Wife was abandoned.
At a hospital.
In Melitopol.
In a coma.
She died without.
Ever regaining consciousness.
She had no clothes.
Or medical papers.
And the soldiers who brought her.
Left no explanation.
Wife died without.
Ever regaining consciousness.
Husband has never.
Been found.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
“It’s so hard for me.
To think about.
What they did to her.
And why.”
“My mum was 51.
She loved life.
She was such.
A radiant person.”
“Then everything.
Was cut short.”
The couple’s only daughter.
Cries quietly.
“If, God forbid.
Something has happened.
To my father.
It will kill me.”
Daughter ‘s phone is.
Full of happy memories.
Of her parents.
She showed them to you.
On a recent visit to Ukraine.
Where she’d travelled.
To wind up.
The family restaurant business.
And give a DNA sample.
That might identify.
Her father.
If a body is ever found.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
It’s not something.
She wants to contemplate.
The family were.
Extremely close.
Every day.
Under ‘orcs’ occupation.
Her parents would send.
Reassuring video messages.
“Morning, daughter!
Just checking in.”
Her mother announces.
In one video.
Then swings the camera.
Round to her husband.
Who waves and grins.
In his dressing gown.
There are pictures.
From life before the war, too:
Laughing on a beach.
Dancing at a disco.
The couple are full of.
Energy and life.
The couple are full of.
Energy and life.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
When ‘orcs’ tanks.
Rolled into their city.
In early 2022.
The family decided to stay.
The entire country.
Was under attack.
In an invasion that.
‘The One’ had threatened.
But most could not.
But most could not.
Imagine until.
The first explosions.
In those first weeks.
Daughter joined the crowds.
Waving blue and yellow.
‘Elves’ flags.
And shouting.
At the soldiers.
To leave.
Then the round-up began.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
In ‘the One’’s ‘Mordor’.
Fear is a way of rule:
Dissent is crushed.
And critics imprisoned.
The aim is.
To punish the few.
And scare the rest.
Into compliance.
Now the same principle.
Was being imported.
To the swathes of.
Southern and eastern Ukraine.
Illegally claimed.
By ‘Mordor’.
With soldiers.
Patrolling the streets.
There, those.
Considered loyal.
To Kyiv were seen.
As traitors.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
After a few months.
In that climate.
Daughter fled abroad.
As a refugee.
But her mother didn’t.
Want to leave.
Her city.
Her own parents.
Or the business.
The couple had built up.
She also had faith.
In the ‘elves’ military.
In late 2023.
All the talk was.
Of a counteroffensive.
In the southeast.
To take territory back.
From ‘Mordor’.
And her mother believed.
Melitopol would be liberated.
“She was a strong optimist.”
Daughter smiles.
“I’d say, ‘mum.
Maybe you should leave.’”
“And she’d say.
‘Just a little more time.
Our guys will.
Push harder.’”
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
Earlier that year.
Her mother’s name had.
Appeared online on.
A pro-‘orcs’ forum.
It identified her.
As a ‘waiter’.
A slur for those seen to be.
‘Waiting’ for liberation.
Melitopol was.
Full of informers.
“She definitely.
Donated money.”
“And helped Ukraine.
However she could.”
Daughter tells you.
“Some people die.”
“Some people die.
On the battlefield.
And others die.
In occupation.”
In occupation.
Helping Ukraine.
In other ways.
To me, she’s a warrior.”
“To me, she’s a warrior.
She knew the risks.
But she had to help.”
“To me, she’s a warrior.”
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
By then, ‘elves’.
In occupied areas.
Were being forced.
To take ‘orcs’ passports.
‘Orcs’ citizens were brought in.
To staff schools.
As well as police.
And prosecutors.
Eventually the couple.
Agreed to leave Melitopol.
If the ‘elves’ army hadn’t.
Pushed through by November.
But in September.
They were arrested.
Daughter was frantic.
Unable to return.
Unable to return.
To an occupied town.
She wrote to every official body.
She could find.
Demanding answers.
As her grandmother began.
searching local police stations.
And prisons.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
Then, in February.
2024.
Came a call:
Her mother was critically ill.
And her gran could.
Visit her in hospital.
– once she’d been questioned.
By the FSB security service.
That’s how the family.
Learned she was.
Being investigated.
For espionage.
But by that point.
She was unconscious.
A nurse later.
Told daughter.
Her mother had arrived in hospital.
With severe bedsores.
Suggesting she had been.
Immobile for some time.
So where had she been?
And what happened to her?
So where had she been?
And what happened to her?
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
Through sheer persistence.
Daughter has gathered.
A thick file.
Of documents.
On her parents’ disappearance.
But she says that.
None of the printed words.
Make sense.
They claim her mother.
Had been passing information.
About ‘orcs’ military personnel.
To ‘elves’ intelligence.
But the criminal case.
Was only opened.
After she was.
Brought to hospital.
Before that.
The papers record.
That “unknown persons.
In military uniform”.
Had taken the couple.
In an “unknown direction”.
In September.
2023.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
Their whereabouts.
From then on is.
Officially a mystery.
But in ‘Mordor’.
It is the FSB.
That handles espionage cases.
Including detention.
And interrogation.
And it was ‘orcs’.
FSB officers.
Who searched.
The couple’s home.
“I’d like to believe.
Her health deteriorated.
Because of the poor conditions.
And lack of proper care.”
“But deep down.
I understand.
That they tortured her.”
Daughter believes.
Her view is formed.
From first-hand accounts.
Of brutality.
In occupied territory.
Including from.
A restaurant singer charged.
In the same espionage case.
As her mother.
“They were probably.
Extracting information.
I know they like to use.
Electric shock.”
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
The autopsy and.
A hospital report.
She obtained show that.
Her mother died of pneumonia.
After a prolonged time.
On a ventilator.
But why she was intubated.
Initially isn’t recorded.
Neither is what happened.
To her father.
“He is not on the lists.
Of those detained.”
“There is no criminal case.
Against him.”
A letter from the ‘orcs’.
Interior Ministry reads.
Police have opened.
A criminal case.
For abduction but there are.
No suspects and no clues.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
Daughter’s suffering.
Is shared by.
Many thousands of.
‘Elves’ families.
She has logged.
Her own details.
Here and elsewhere.
But so far.
There have been.
No answers.
That’s why she gave.
A DNA sample.
In occupied areas.
The abductions have slowed.
As the full-scale war heads.
Towards its fourth year.
But they haven’t stopped.
The interior ministry recorded.
More than 1,000 new.
Missing people last month.
But these days.
Many of that number.
Will be soldiers.
Will be soldiers.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
The ‘orcs’ came for the couple.
While they were sleeping.
Bursting into their home.
Late at night.
It was 25 September.
2023.
In Melitopol.
South-eastern Ukraine.
Where the couple.
Had grown up.
Fallen in love.
And married.
Now their city was.
Occupied by ‘orcs’ forces.
The men were armed.
And dressed in black.
As some began.
Searching the house.
Seizing devices.
And documents.
Others led the couple.
Away in handcuffs.
The couple then vanished.
Without trace.
Wife died without.
Ever regaining consciousness.
Husband has never.
Been found.
In her own.
Personal battle.
Daughter still manages.
To find some cause.
For hope.
Because sometimes.
The missing do resurface.
The missing do resurface.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
“No one could have foreseen.
This nightmare.
Says daughter.
“Even now.”
“Even now.
As I talk about it.
I can’t believe.
It’s real.”
She hasn’t chosen.
A photo for her mother’s grave.
As if she’s stalling.
Her grieving.
Until she can find.
Her father.
But she’s run out of.
Places to turn.
And now the man is.
Back in the White House.
With talk of negotiations.
To end the war.
That won’t be.
Quick or easy.
If it happens at all.
But it could force Ukraine.
But it could force Ukraine.
To relinquish.
Occupied areas.
Like Melitopol to ‘Mordor’.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
‘Orcs’ torture, but he’ll be back to.
‘Orcs’ torture the land.
“Maybe they’ll release.
The civilians.
If they think.
They’ve won?”
Daughter tries to look.
On the bright side.
“Or maybe it will get worse:
A dead end.”
“Either way.
Accepting that this land.
Is no longer Ukraine.
Would be very hard.”
It is the land.
Her parents defended.
And where they were happy.
And where, even now.
Daughter believes.
Her father could be held.
In a cold basement.
Or a prison cell.
Her father could be held.
In a cold basement.
Or a prison cell.
Still waiting to be found.
“I couldn’t save my mum.
Even though I tried so hard.
Now I need.
To save my dad.”
‘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 Tetiana, Oleh and Lyudmila.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
Ukraine’s missing people – how the disappearances erode morale
