Alice thought it would not be civil
to say ‘No,’ though it wasn’t at all
that she wanted.
So she took it,
and ate it as well as she could:
and it was very dry;
and she thought she had never been
so nearly choked in all her life.
Over the course.
Of five days.
Relentless ‘orcs’ strikes.
On the Kyiv region.
Have claimed the lives.
Of at least.
41 people, with.
A further 85 injured.
The attacks are partially.
Paralysing public transport.
The rail network.
And trade.
Whilst also disrupting.
The plans of schoolchildren.
Due to start.
The new academic year.
Alice never could quite make out,
in thinking it over afterwards,
how it was that they began:
all she remembers is,
that they were running hand in hand,
and the Queen went so fast
that it was all she could do
to keep up with her:
The day before.
The ‘elf’ Minister for Recovery.
Infrastructure and Transport.
Held a meeting.
With the management.
Of Ukrzaliznytsia.
The Kyiv City Military Administration.
And the military command.
He stated that.
The government is working on.
“A solution to ensure transport.
And logistics operations.”
“A solution to ensure transport.
And logistics operations.
During prolonged.
Air raid alerts”.
and still the Queen kept crying
‘Faster! Faster!’ but Alice felt
she could not go faster,
though she had no breath left to say so.
The most curious part of the thing was,
that the trees and the other things
round them never changed
their places at all:
The Kyiv Mayor has already.
Appealed to the government.
To shorten the curfew.
And keep the surface metro.
To shorten the curfew.
And keep the surface metro.
Running during.
Air raid alerts.
however fast they went,
they never seemed to pass anything.
‘I wonder if all the things
move along with us?’
thought poor puzzled Alice.
And the Queen seemed to guess
her thoughts, for she cried,
‘Faster! Don’t try to talk!’
‘Orcs’ launched.
An almost continuous.
Air assault.
On the Kyiv region.
On the night.
Of 27 August.
By the following morning.
It had emerged that.
Warehouses and private homes.
In various districts.
Of the Kyiv region.
Had been hit.
Not that Alice had any idea
of doing that.
She felt as if she would never
be able to talk again,
she was getting so much out of breath:
and still the Queen cried
‘Faster! Faster!’
and dragged her along.
On the morning.
Of 27 August.
The attack continued.
According to local authorities.
Four people were injured.
As a result of.
The strikes on the capital.
Two more people were injured.
In the Boryspil district.
‘Are we nearly there?’
Alice managed to pant out at last.
‘Nearly there!’ the Queen repeated.
‘Why, we passed it ten minutes ago! Faster!’
And they ran on for a time in silence,
with the wind whistling in Alice’s ears,
and almost blowing her hair
off her head, she fancied.
The following day.
28 August.
An ‘orcs’ strike claimed.
The life of a resident.
Of the Bucha district.
Five more residents.
Of the Kyiv region.
Were injured.
‘Now! Now!’ cried the Queen. ‘Faster! Faster!’
And they went so fast that at last
they seemed to skim through the air,
hardly touching the ground with their feet,
till suddenly, just as
Alice was getting quite exhausted,
they stopped, and she found herself sitting
on the ground, breathless and giddy.
In the evening.
The ‘orcs’ attacked.
The village of Myla.
In the Bucha district.
Where a strike hit.
Where a strike hit.
Military ammunition depots.
Thirty-eight people were killed.
As a result.
As a result.
Of the strike and.
The subsequent explosion.
Most of the victims.
Were residents of.
One care home.
For the elderly.
In addition.
52 people were injured.
Including five children.
Including five children.
Nine people were.
Hospitalised with.
Hospitalised with.
Moderate injuries.
The Queen propped her up against a tree,
and said kindly,
‘You may rest a little now.’
Alice looked round her in great surprise.
‘Why, I do believe
we’ve been under this tree
the whole time!
Everything’s just as it was!’
On 29 August.
A two-year-old girl was killed.
As a result.
Of an ‘orcs’ attack.
On the capital.
Twelve residents.
Of the city.
Were injured.
Among those hospitalised.
Among those hospitalised.
Were a three-year-old boy.
And an 18-year-old girl.
‘Of course it is,’ said the Queen:
‘what would you have it?’
‘Well, in our country,’
said Alice, still panting a little,
‘you’d generally get to somewhere else
– if you ran very fast
for a long time,
as we’ve been doing.’
That same morning.
A 14-year-old girl was killed.
In the Boryspil district.
In the Boryspil district.
As a result.
As a result.
Of an attack.
By ‘orcs’ drones.
‘A slow sort of country!’
said the Queen.
‘Now, here, you see, it takes
all the running you can do,
to keep in the same place.
If you want to get somewhere else,
you must run at least twice
as fast as that!’
On 30 August.
Efforts to deal with.
The aftermath of the strike.
On Myla continued.
Whilst the ‘orcs’.
Whilst the ‘orcs’.
Kept attacking Kyiv and.
The surrounding region.
Air raid alerts were sounded.
11 times.
In the capital.
There were no casualties.
‘I’d rather not try,
please!’ said Alice.
‘I’m quite content to stay here
– only I am so hot and thirsty!’
‘I know what you’d like!’
the Queen said good-naturedly,
taking a little box out of her pocket.
‘Have a biscuit?’
On Monday, 31 August.
Six people were injured.
As a result of.
The attack on Kyiv.
Most of them.
According to the Mayor.
Were in the village.
Of Pohreby.
Three of the injured.
Were hospitalised.
In a serious condition.
In a serious condition.
The head of the Kyiv.
Regional State Administration.
Also reported four injured.
In the Kyiv region.
Alice thought it would not be civil
to say ‘No,’ though it wasn’t at all
that she wanted.
So she took it,
and ate it as well as she could:
and it was very dry;
and she thought she had never been
so nearly choked in all her life.
*Because I read “Менша комендантська, більше метро і школа онлайн? Як Київ адаптується до безперервної повітряної тривоги(Less curfew, more metro and online school? How Kyiv adapts to continuous air alert) ” on 31 Aug 2026 on the BBC news Ukraine, and also “Why are Ukrainians calling Russians ‘orcs’?” by James FitzGerald on 30 Apr 2022, on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem, led by ‘THROUGH the LOOKING-GLASS’ written by Lewis Carroll, you know.
Please read the original story on the BBC news Ukraine:
