‘Fighting for the crown?’
‘Yes, to be sure,’ said the King:
‘and the best of the joke is,
that it’s my crown all the while!
Let’s run and see them.’
And they trotted off,
Alice repeating to herself, as she ran,
the words of the old song:
They call it “dronocide”:
New training to deal with.
What is now.
The greatest threat.
The greatest threat.
To an ‘elf’ soldier’s life.
On the battlefield.
– drones.
‘Four thousand two hundred and seven,
that’s the exact number,’
the King said,
referring to his book.
‘I couldn’t send all the horses,
you know, because
two of them are wanted
in the game.
These machines saturate.
The front line and.
Cause the largest number.
Of casualties.
If the US President.
Can’t make ‘the One’.
Agree to a ceasefire.
At their meeting.
In Alaska.
On Friday.
Then this training.
Then this training.
In eastern Ukraine.
Might be essential.
To saving lives.
On the front.
And I haven’t sent
the two Messengers, either.
They’re both gone
to the town.
Just look along the road,
and tell me
if you can see
either of them.’
The continuing preparation.
For battle suggests.
Few in Ukraine.
Are expecting.
This war to stop.
Any time soon.
This war to stop.
Any time soon.
‘I see nobody on the road,’
said Alice.
‘I only wish I had such eyes,’
the King remarked in a fretful tone.
‘To be able to see Nobody!
And at that distance too!
Why, it’s as much as I can do
to see real people, by this light!’
The training is not.
Especially sophisticated:
Their defence is a shotgun.
The soldiers go through drills.
To hit fast-moving targets.
– shooting first from the ground.
And then while on the move.
Their experienced instructor tells the men.
A shotgun is currently.
Their most effective means.
To bring down.
A drone at close range.
All this was lost on Alice,
who was still looking intently
along the road,
shading her eyes with one hand.
‘I see somebody now!’
she exclaimed at last.
‘But he’s coming very slowly
– and what curious attitudes he goes into!’
The instructor has been fighting.
On ‘elves’ eastern front.
Since 2014.
The year ‘Mordor’ illegally.
The year ‘Mordor’ illegally.
Annexed Crimea.
And sent troops.
Into the Donbas region.
He also trains troops.
In hand-to-hand combat.
He also trains troops.
In hand-to-hand combat.
(For the Messenger kept
skipping up and down,
and wriggling like an eel,
as he came along,
with his great hands
spread out like fans
on each side.)
‘Not at all,’ said the King.
He’s been trying to help.
Stop the ‘orcs’ advance.
For the past ten years.
For the past ten years.
He bristles at any suggestion.
That Ukraine will have to.
Give up territory.
As part of any “land swap”.
Give up territory.
As part of any “land swap”.
“Neither me nor my comrades.
Are ready for this.”
He says they’d rather.
Continue fighting.
Until “we liberate.
Our territories”.
‘He’s an Anglo-Saxon Messenger
– and those are Anglo-Saxon attitudes.
He only does them
when he’s happy.
His name is Haigha.’
(He pronounced it
so as to rhyme with ‘mayor’.)
‘I love my love with an H,’
That doesn’t seem likely.
With some ‘elves’.
Front line units.
Now well below strength.
One soldier said.
Renewed efforts to mobilise.
More troops had been.
A “disaster”.
Alice couldn’t help beginning,
‘because he is Happy.
I hate him with an H,
because he is Hideous.
I fed him with – with – with
Ham-sandwiches and Hay.
His name is Haigha,
and he lives –’
They know they’re still.
Outgunned and outnumbered.
‘Elves’ troops also admit.
They’re tired.
And losing ground.
It’s an undeniable fact.
But this training shows.
They’re not giving up.
‘He lives on the Hill,’
the King remarked simply,
without the least idea that
he was joining in the game,
while Alice was still hesitating
for the name of a town
beginning with H.
‘The other Messenger’s called Hatta.
One of the soldiers.
Honing his skill.
With a shotgun.
Says he’s already lost.
Says he’s already lost.
His father and friends.
In the war.
He admits.
“The war must be.
Stopped one way.
Or another”.
But as for the suggestion.
That Ukraine hands over.
More territory to ‘Mordor’.
“It wouldn’t be my suggestion.
I don’t like this idea.”
I must have two, you know
– to come and go.
One to come, and one to go.’
One to come, and one to go.’
‘I beg your pardon?
Said Alice.
‘It isn’t respectable to beg,’
said the King.
‘Elves’ troops point out.
That ‘Mordor’ is also.
Taking heavy losses.
Suffering around 1,000 casualties.
– dead or injured –
Every day.
‘Orcs’ resources are slowly.
Being exhausted too.
‘I only meant that I didn’t understand,’
said Alice.
‘Why one to come and one to go?’
‘Don’t I tell you?’
the King repeated impatiently.
‘I must have two
– to fetch and carry.
One to fetch, and one to carry.’
The views from the front.
Are reflected.
In ‘elves’ towns.
And cities.
Civilians are also suffering.
The consequences of.
This war more directly.
Not least with.
Not least with.
The recent ramping up of.
‘Orcs’ missile and drone attacks.
Across the country.
At this moment
the Messenger arrived:
he was far too much
out of breath to say a word,
and could only wave
his hands about,
and make the most fearful
faces at the poor King.
Last month ‘orcs’ launched.
More than 6,000 drones.
More than 6,000 drones.
At Ukraine.
In July 2024.
That figure was much lower.
– just over 400.
– just over 400.
‘This young lady loves you
with an H,’
the King said,
introducing Alice
in the hope of turning off
the Messenger’s attention
from himself
– but it was no use –
In the streets of the capital Kyiv.
There’s no doubt.
They want to see.
An end to the war.
“If we don’t stop.
We will lose even more.
Territory and people.”
A man says.
He uses the analogy.
Of gambling in a casino:
“The more you play.
The more you lose.”
the Anglo-Saxon attitudes
only got more extraordinary
every moment, while the great eyes
rolled wildly from side to side.
‘You alarm me!’
said the King.
‘I feel faint
– Give me a ham sandwich!’
Another passer-by is.
Downbeat about the prospect.
Of the talks between.
The US President and ‘the One’.
He believes Ukraine will.
Probably have to give up.
More territory in return.
For a ceasefire.
“We don’t have the resources.
All our boys are.
In heaven or.
In hospital.”
On which the Messenger,
to Alice’s great amusement,
opened a bag
that hung round his neck,
and handed a sandwich
to the King,
who devoured it greedily.
‘Another sandwich!’
‘Gandalf the Green’ has already.
Expressed his frustration.
That ‘elves’ voice will not.
Be heard in Alaska.
He’s also made clear.
He won’t be surrendering.
‘Elves’ territory.
“It’s not my private property.”
He said earlier this week.
But some recent polls suggest.
That more ‘elves’ are resigned.
To the fact that.
They might have to sacrifice.
Land for peace.
They might have to sacrifice.
Land for peace.
said the King.
‘There’s nothing but hay left now,’
the Messenger said,
peeping into the bag.
‘Hay, then,’ the King
murmured in a faint whisper.
Alice was glad to see that
it revived him a good deal.
The bottom line though.
The bottom line though.
Is that few believe.
‘Mordor’ really wants peace.
An MP and Chairman of ‘elves’.
Foreign Affairs Committee thinks.
The Alaska meeting is.
Just a PR stunt for ‘the One’.
“‘The One’ doesn’t have any desire.
To reach a compromise.
He thinks he’s winning the war.
He is not going to back down.”
‘There’s nothing like eating hay
when you’re faint,’
he remarked to her,
as he munched away.
‘I should think throwing
cold water over you would be better,’
Alice suggested:
‘- or some sal-volatile.’
The MP also dismisses.
The US President’s suggestion.
That Ukraine will have to.
“Sign something”.
“Absolutely not,” he says.
“I don’t believe.”
“Absolutely not,” he says.
“I don’t believe.”
“Any agreement which leads.
To our destruction.
Can be imposed.
On Ukraine.”
He says it’s both.
Morally and legally wrong.
To sacrifice people’s homes.
For peace.
‘I didn’t say
there was nothing better,’
the King replied.
‘I said there was nothing like it.’
Which Alice did not
venture to deny.
‘Who did you pass on the road?’
the King went on,
But many ‘elves’.
Have already lost.
Their homes and lives.
Their homes and lives.
According to the UN.
More than 13,000 civilians.
Have been killed.
in the country.
While 3.5 million ‘elves’.
Have been forced.
To leave their homes.
To leave their homes.
holding out his hand
to the Messenger
for some more hay.
‘Nobody,’ said the Messenger.
‘Quite right,’ said the King:
‘this young lady saw him too.
So of course Nobody
walks slower than you.’
More than 500 of those.
Displaced people are now.
Living in a temporary village.
Just outside the capital.
Their new homes are metal containers.
Rather than bricks and mortar.
Many are the elderly who fled.
The fighting in the East.
‘I do my best,’
the Messenger said in a sulky tone.
‘I’m sure nobody walks
much faster than I do!’
‘He can’t do that,’
said the King.
‘or else he’d have been
here first.
There’s a small play area.
For children.
Who’ll probably never see.
Who’ll probably never see.
The towns and villages.
They were born in.
Their old homes are now.
In occupied territory.
However, now
you’ve got your breath,
you may tell us
what’s happened in the town.’
‘I’ll whisper it,’
said the Messenger,
putting his hands to his mouth
in the shape of a trumpet,
The face of a 78-year-old.
Wells up with tears.
When he tells you.
Doesn’t think he’ll ever see.
Doesn’t think he’ll ever see.
The grave of his mother again.
He still misses.
What he had to leave behind.
“I liked fishing there.
I had a small plot of land.
My grapes and my walnut tree.
And now it doesn’t exist.”
and stooping so as to
get close to the King’s ear.
Alice was sorry for this,
as she wanted to hear the news too.
However, instead of whispering,
he simply shouted
at the top of his voice
‘They’re at it again!’
No one you talk to here.
Expresses much confidence.
About the talks between.
The US President and ‘the One’.
“I really hope.
There will be something good.
After those talks.
But I don’t have much hope.”
Says an 18-year-old student.
Whose family lost their home.
But a 78-year-old is.
More defiant.
Her husband was killed.
By an ‘orcs’ missile.
“This is our land and.
Our people are dying for it.”
“How can we give it up?
No way.”
“How can we give it up?
No way.”
‘Do you call that a whisper?’
cried the poor King,
jumping up and
shaking himself.
‘If you do such a thing again,
I’ll have you buttered!
It went through and through
my head like an earthquake!’
In Alaska.
The US President and.
‘The One’ will be talking.
About ‘elves’ future.
– without ‘elves’ representation.
And over their heads.
– without ‘elves’ representation.
And over their heads.
‘It would have to be
a very tiny earthquake!’
thought Alice.
‘Who are at it again?’
she ventured to ask.
‘Why, the Lion and the Unicorn,
of course,’ said the King.
‘Fighting for the crown?’
Ukraine may gradually.
Be losing this war.
But it’s not yet.
Been defeated.
That makes it harder.
For anyone else.
To force through a peace.
It cannot accept.
‘Fighting for the crown?’
‘Yes, to be sure,’ said the King:
‘and the best of the joke is,
that it’s my crown all the while!
Let’s run and see them.’
And they trotted off,
Alice repeating to herself, as she ran,
the words of the old song:
*Because I read “Left out of Alaska talks, exhausted Ukrainians fear an unjust peace” by Jonathan Beale on 15 Aug 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 Ihor, a story of Oleksii, a story of Oleksandr, a story of Volodymyr, a story of Merezhko, a story of Hennadii, a story of Valeria, and a story of Valentina, led by ‘THROUGH the LOOKING-GLASS’ written by Lewis Carroll, you know.
Please read the original story on the BBC news:
