This time it was
a White Knight.
He drew up at Alice’s side,
and tumbled off his horse
just as the Red Knight had done:
then he got on again,
and the two Knights sat and
looked at each other
for some time
without speaking.
Alice looked from one to the other
in some bewilderment.
‘She’s my prisoner, you know!’
the Red Knight said at last.
‘Yes, but then I came and rescued her!’
the White Knight replied.
Although moving forward.
His body is.
Angled slightly away.
From the camera.
As if bracing.
Against the deadly air.
Still swirling with.
Falling debris and smoke.
His face in careful concentration.
The Major-General from.
‘Elves’ Civil Protection Service.
Clings tightly to a precious bundle.
Wrapped for protection.
In his coat.
– and out of which.
Two small pink shoes protrude.
‘Well, we must fight for her, then,
said the Red Knight,
as he took up his helmet
and put it on.
‘You will observe
the Rules of Battle, of course?’
the White Knight remarked,
putting on his helmet too.
It is a striking image.
Of a dramatic rescue.
From a nursery school.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv.
Following a devastating.
Direct hit.
By an ‘orcs’ drone.
Unsurprisingly.
It has gone viral.
Capturing both the ‘elves’.
And the wider global.
Public’s imagination.
‘I always do,’
said the Red Knight,
and they began banging away
at each other
with such fury that
Alice got behind a tree
to be out of the way
of the blows.
With 48 children.
With 48 children.
Trapped in a shelter.
In the burning building.
It was not the only act.
Of bravery that day.
Not by a long way.
Not by a long way.
But few photographs.
Better sum up.
The growing impact of.
‘Orcs’ full-scale invasion.
On everyday life.
With ‘elves’ most vulnerable.
Now bearing the brunt.
Including children.
After a while
the noise seemed gradually
to die away,
till all was dead silence,
and Alice lifted up
her head in some alarm.
There was no one to be seen,
and her first thought was that
“We got the call.
That there had been.
An attack on the kindergarten.
And, of course.”
“Knowing there would be.
Children there.
We set off in a state.
Of some anxiety.”
Little did he expect that.
By the end of that day.
As a result of.
Carrying that little girl.
To safety.
He would find himself.
Being hailed.
As a national hero.
she must have been dreaming
about the Lion and the Unicorn
and those queer
Anglo-Saxon Messengers.
However, there was the great dish
still lying at her feet,
on which she had tried to cut
the plum-cake,
In a split-second moment.
Caught on camera.
The ‘elves’ people saw.
Not only the reality.
Of ‘Mordor’’s new strategy.
– its increasing attacks.
On civilian infrastructure –
But also a stark depiction.
Of their own.
Resilience and defiance.
Of their own.
Resilience and defiance.
‘So I wasn’t dreaming, after all,’
she said to herself,
‘unless – unless we’re all part of
the same dream.
Only I do hope it’s my dream,
and not the Red King’s!
I don’t like belonging to
another person’s dream,’
It’s impossible to know.
Why the Honey Academy.
Based in a sturdy.
Two-storey brick building.
In Kharkiv’s.
Kholodnohirsky district.
Was hit by.
A Shahed drone.
The low, menacing hum of.
Those Iranian-designed weapons.
Which carry a lethal.
50kg payload.
Is now all too familiar.
Not only to soldiers.
On the front line.
But to ‘elves’ everywhere.
she went on
in a rather complaining tone:
‘I’ve a great mind to go and
wake him, and see what happens!’
At this moment
her thoughts were interrupted
by a loud shouting of
‘Ahoy! Ahoy! Check!
While they can be.
Devastatingly accurate.
The large volume.
Being fired by ‘orcs’.
– with multiple waves of drones.
In each attack.
On cities across the country –
Means some inevitably malfunction.
‘Mordor’ has regularly denied.
Targeting residential areas.
But maps of the city show.
No obvious military targets.
In the immediate vicinity.
Of the kindergarten.
And the ‘elves’ government certainly.
Spoke of it as deliberate.
and a Knight,
dressed in crimson armour,
came galloping down upon her,
brandishing a great club.
Just as he reached her,
the horse stopped suddenly:
‘You’re my prisoner!’ the Knight cried,
as he tumbled off his horse.
“There is no justification.
For an attack.
On a kindergarten.
Nor can there ever be.”
‘Gandalf the Green’ said.
Shortly after the strike.
“Clearly, ‘Mordor’ is.
Growing more brazen.”
Startled as she was,
Alice was more frightened
for him than for herself
at the moment,
and watched him with some anxiety
as he mounted again.
As soon as he was
comfortably in the saddle,
Another man was also with.
One of the emergency teams.
Rushing to respond.
To the strike.
Normally, as a press officer.
With the Civil Defence Service.
He is not so closely.
Involved in frontline work.
But this time.
Seeing the disaster.
Unfolding in front of him.
He knew he had to act.
he began once more
‘You’re my –’
but here another voice
broke in
‘Ahoy! Ahoy! Check!’
and Alice looked round
in some surprise
for the new enemy.
“There’d been a huge explosion.
And there was horror.
In their eyes.”
He told you.
On finding the children huddled.
In the building’s basement.
Luckily, following.
The air raid warning.
That had sounded.
Before the attack.
The children had taken cover.
In the school’s shelter there.
This time it was
a White Knight.
He drew up at Alice’s side,
and tumbled off his horse
just as the Red Knight had done:
then he got on again,
and the two Knights sat and
looked at each other
But with the fire still burning.
The roof destroyed and.
The building filling with.
Smoke and dust.
They were still in danger.
His colleagues.
As well as members of.
The public who had.
Come to help.
Stepped forward.
One by one.
To scoop up a child.
for some time
without speaking.
Alice looked from one to the other
in some bewilderment.
‘She’s my prisoner, you know!’
the Red Knight said at last.
‘Yes, but then I came and rescued her!’
the White Knight replied.
Like the man.
His more senior commander.
This press officer was pictured.
Carrying a child to safety.
In his case.
It was a young boy.
Through the rubble.
And smoke.
“I was reassuring him.
All the way that.
Everything was fine.
There was nothing.”
“Everything was fine.
There was nothing.
To worry about.”
He explained.
‘Well, we must fight for her, then,
said the Red Knight,
as he took up his helmet
and put it on.
‘You will observe
the Rules of Battle, of course?’
the White Knight remarked,
putting on his helmet too.
“When we came out.
Of the building.
There was a car.
On fire.”
“Our boys were putting it out.
And, you know.
I was surprised.
The kid didn’t cry.”
“There was certainly fear.
In his eyes.
I said to him.
Go ahead and.”
“Go ahead and.
Hold me as tight.
As you like.
I’m quite big myself and.”
“As you can see.
In the photo.
He grabbed me.
So tightly.”
‘I always do,’
said the Red Knight,
and they began banging away
at each other
with such fury that
Alice got behind a tree
to be out of the way
of the blows.
In the end.
He had fulfilled two roles:
The rescue work.
And his day job too.
His press officer’s helmet-camera.
Rolled throughout.
Capturing many of.
The up-close photographs.
The up-close photographs.
And videos that have.
Since been beamed.
Around the world.
Where the noise came from,
she couldn’t make out;
the air seemed full of it,
and it rang
through and through her head
till she felt quite deafened.
She started to her feet and sprang
across the little brook in her terror,
The children were carried.
To an emergency reception point.
In a safe zone.
A few hundred metres.
From the nursery school.
All were unharmed.
But there can be little doubt.
About the danger they faced.
One adult working nearby.
Was killed in the strike.
And nine others.
Were wounded.
One with serious burns.
And another.
A traumatic amputation.
Of her leg.
and had just time to see
the Lion and the Unicorn
rise to their feet,
with angry looks
at being interrupted
in their feast,
before she dropped
to her knees,
For all the rescuers.
The press officer told you,
There was the constant awareness.
Not only of the risks.
Of fire, falling.
Masonry and smoke.
But of the possibility.
Of another strike.
‘Mordor’ has been known.
To hit the same target twice.
To hit the same target twice.
Which ‘elves’ see.
As a deliberate strategy.
To kill emergency workers.
As a deliberate strategy.
To kill emergency workers.
and put her hands
over her ears,
vainly trying to shut out
the dreadful uproar.
‘If that doesn’t
“drum them out of town,” ’
she thought to herself,
‘nothing ever will!’
The day after.
The nursery school attack.
One of these so called.
“Double taps”.
Killed a firefighter and.
Wounded five of his colleagues.
In a village a short distance.
From Kharkiv.
Ukraine believes.
‘Mordor’ has turned.
To civilian targets.
To civilian targets.
In desperation.
Over its inability.
To make significant gains.
On the battlefield.
After a while
the noise seemed gradually
to die away,
till all was dead silence,
and Alice lifted up
her head in some alarm.
There was no one to be seen,
and her first thought was that
Both men say.
What they saw.
At the kindergarten.
Has done little.
To change their view.
Of the enemy.
“From the beginning.
I have only one feeling.”
“I have only one feeling.
That we must go through.
All this and win.”
The senior commander said.
she must have been dreaming
about the Lion and the Unicorn
and those queer
Anglo-Saxon Messengers.
However, there was the great dish
still lying at her feet,
on which she had tried to cut
the plum-cake,
What kind of future?
Does he envisage?
For the 48 young lives?
He helped save?
“Of course, only good, happy lives.
But not only our children.
I would like all children.
To live in peace.”
‘So I wasn’t dreaming, after all,’
she said to herself,
‘unless – unless we’re all part of
the same dream.
Only I do hope it’s my dream,
and not the Red King’s!
I don’t like belonging to
another person’s dream,’
she went on
in a rather complaining tone:
‘I’ve a great mind to go and
wake him, and see what happens!’
At this moment
her thoughts were interrupted
by a loud shouting of
‘Ahoy! Ahoy! Check!
*Because I read “The ‘Heroes of Kharkiv’ who saved 48 children from kindergarten hit by Russian drone” by John Sudworth on 25 Oct 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, including a story of Oleksandr and a story of Fedir, led by ‘THROUGH the LOOKING-GLASS’ written by Lewis Carroll, you know.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
How 48 Ukrainian children were saved from Kharkiv kindergarten hit by Russian drone
