‘Tickets, please!’ said the Guard,
putting his head in at the window.
In a moment
everybody was holding out a ticket:
they were about the same size
as the people,
and quite seemed
to fill the carriage.
‘Mordor’ is increasingly.
Targeting ‘elves’ rail network.
– from tracks and power stations.
To locomotives and depots.
For a country where.
The railways provide.
Passenger transport.
Military logistics.
And keep the economy running.
This is becoming.
An increasingly serious problem.
Reports one newspaper.
‘Now then! Show your ticket, child!’
the Guard went on,
looking angrily at Alice.
And a great many voices all said together
(‘like the chorus of a song,’ thought Alice),
‘Don’t keep him waiting, child!
Why, his time is worth
a thousand pounds a minute!’
Six employees.
Of Ukrzaliznytsia.
Were killed.
During the ‘orcs’ attack.
On Kyiv and.
The surrounding region.
On Tuesday.
1 September.
A ballistic missile struck.
A locomotive depot.
And damaged.
Other railway facilities.
‘I’m afraid I haven’t got one,’
Alice said in a frightened tone:
‘there wasn’t a ticket-office where I came from.’
And again the chorus of voices went on.
‘There wasn’t room
for one where she came from.
The land there is worth
a thousand pounds an inch!’
The Ukrzaliznytsia’s Chairman.
Of the Board.
Described that night.
Described that night.
As “unbearably difficult.
For the entire railway family”.
As “unbearably difficult.
For the entire railway family”.
The attack took place.
Against a backdrop of.
Intensified ‘orcs’ strikes.
On the ‘elves’ capital.
‘Don’t make excuses,’ said the Guard:
‘you should have bought one
from the engine-driver.’
And once more
the chorus of voices went on with
‘The man that drives the engine.
Why, the smoke alone is worth
a thousand pounds a puff!’
He reported that.
Six Ukrzaliznytsia employees.
Have been killed.
Another person killed.
In the attack on Ukrzaliznytsia.
Was not a railway employee.
He speaks of.
Extensive damage.
Alice thought to herself,
‘Then there’s no use in speaking.’
The voices didn’t join in this time,
as she hadn’t spoken,
but, to her great surprise,
they all thought in chorus
(I hope you understand
what thinking in chorus means
“Ballistic strikes.
On Kyiv overnight.
– specifically targeting.”
– specifically targeting.”
“The railway depot and.
Other railway facilities.
We’ve been here on site.
Since last night.”
“Nearby is a workshop that.
Has been completely destroyed.
Rescue workers are.
Still putting out.”
“A number of fires.
Traffic was closed on.
Two sections of track.
Then reopened…”
– for I must confess that I don’t),
‘Better say nothing at all.
Language is worth
a thousand pounds a word!’
‘I shall dream about
a thousand pounds tonight,
I know I shall!’
thought Alice.
Since last week.
‘Mordor’ has been bombarding.
Kyiv continuously.
For six days in a row.
In an attempt to.
Disrupt daily life.
In the city and.
Demoralise its residents.
And it continues.
To do so.
And it continues.
To do so.
All this time the Guard was looking at her,
first through a telescope,
then through a microscope,
and then through an opera-glass.
At last he said,
‘You’re travelling the wrong way,’
and shut up the window
and went away.
The latest strike.
Took place.
Just a few hours.
before the start of.
Just a few hours.
before the start of.
The new academic year.
In Ukraine.
‘So young a child,’
said the gentleman
sitting opposite to her
(he was dressed in white paper),
‘ought to know
which way she’s going,
even if she doesn’t know
her own name!’
Since the start of.
The full-scale war.
58 railway workers.
Have been killed.
And since the start of.
The full-scale war.
A further.
318 wounded.
But it was not just.
The number of attacks.
That changed.
– the targets changed too.
A Goat, that was sitting
next to the gentleman in white,
shut his eyes and
said in a loud voice,
‘She ought to know
her way to the ticket-office,
even if she doesn’t know
her alphabet!’
A member of.
The supervisory board of Ukrzaliznytsia.
Said that in the first year.
Of the war.
‘Mordor’ targeted bridges.
Which, he said.
Could be replaced.
Relatively easily.
Later, railway tracks.
And electrical substations.
Came under attack.
Came under attack.
There was a Beetle
sitting next the Goat
(it was a very queer carriage-full
of passengers altogether),
and, as the rule seemed to be that
they should all speak in turn,
he went on with ‘She’ll have to
go back from here as luggage!’
In response.
Ukraine has begun to.
Make greater use.
Of diesel locomotives.
However, this year.
‘Mordor’ has resorted.
To ‘direct attacks.
On civilian locomotives’.
– a particularly dangerous.
Tactic given.
‘Elves’ lack of.
Air defence capabilities.
Alice couldn’t see
who was sitting beyond the Beetle,
but a hoarse voice
spoke next.
‘Change engines –’ it said,
and there it choked
and was obliged
to leave off.
According to him.
The railway has already.
Become one of.
‘Orcs’ key targets.
He describes it.
As “the backbone of.
As “the backbone of.
The ‘elves’ economy”.
That is precisely.
Why ‘Mordor’ is.
Attempting to put it.
Out of action.
“It sounds like a horse,”
Alice thought to herself.
And an extremely small voice,
close to her ear, said,
“You might make a joke
on that – something about
‘horse’ and ‘hoarse’, you know.”
“You might make a joke
The ‘elves’ railway network.
Is the third largest.
Is the third largest.
In Europe.
It stretches for.
It stretches for.
Around 24,000 kilometres.
As the newspaper reports.
Then a very gentle voice
in the distance said,
“She must be labelled
‘Lass, with care’, you know-”
And after that
other voices went on
(“What a number of people there are
in the carriage!” thought Alice),
During the war.
It has become.
The country’s main.
Transport artery.
Every week.
Every week.
The railways carry around.
600,000 passengers.
And provide military.
And industrial logistics.
Around 170,000 people.
Work for Ukrzaliznytsia.
saying, “She must go by post,
as she’s got a head on her –”
“She must be sent as a message
by the telegraph –”
“She must draw the train herself
the rest of the way –”,
and so on.
and so on.
Since the start.
Of the year.
‘Mordor’ has attacked.
The railway network.
More than 1,500 times.
– more than in the whole.
Of 2025.
249 carriages and.
492 locomotives.
Have been damaged.
Several train drivers.
Have been killed.
But the gentleman dressed
in white paper
leaned forwards and
whispered in her ear,
“Never mind what
they all say, my dear,
but take a return-ticket
every time the train stops.”
For passengers.
This means that danger.
Could arise at any time.
During their journey.
If a ‘shahid’ comes.
Within 50 kilometres.
Of a train.
It has to be evacuated.
And wait until.
The threat has passed.
And wait until.
The threat has passed.
“Indeed I shan’t!”
Alice said rather impatiently.
“I don’t belong to this
railway journey at all
– I was in a wood just now –
and I wish I could get there!”
– I was in a wood just now –
and I wish I could get there!”
Trains, which were once.
Synonymous with punctuality.
Can now be stranded.
For 12 to 15 hours.
Passengers are forced.
Passengers are forced.
To leave the carriages.
And take shelter.
“You might make a joke on that,”
said the little voice close to her ear:
“something about ‘you would
if you could’, you know.”
“Don’t tease so,” said Alice,
looking about in vain
to see where
the voice came from;
An ‘elf’ journalist described.
One such attack.
People hid under.
A goods wagon.
For two hours.
For two hours.
In the last carriage were.
Children who were.
Being returned home.
After receiving medical treatment.
“They were crying.
In their sleep.”
“I thought I’d ended up.
In a horror film.
But no.
This is our life.”
“if you’re so anxious
to have a joke made,
why don’t you make
one yourself?”
The little voice sighed deeply:
it was very unhappy, evidently,
and Alice would have said
something pitying to comfort it,
After that.
She said she would.
No longer travel.
By train.
Until the war was over.
Although she admires.
The “brave” railway workers.
The “brave” railway workers.
“if it would only sigh
like other people!”
like other people!”
she thought.
But this was such
a wonderfully small sigh,
that she wouldn’t have heard
it at all,
One passenger said.
After an ‘orcs’ drone.
Attacked a train.
In the Odesa region:
“The train was stopped.
And we were made to get off.
We heard explosions;
Everything was on fire.”
“It was terrifying.”
There were around.
600 people on the train.
Including 15 children.
if it hadn’t come
quite close to her ear.
The consequence of this was
that it tickled her ear very much,
and quite took off
her thoughts from
the unhappiness of
the poor little creature.
There are many such stories.
The consequences of.
The attacks are not limited.
To train delays.
According to the board’s member.
‘Orcs’ strikes are already.
Slowing down grain exports.
From ‘elves’ Black Sea ports.
“If the whole country.
Is under attack.
They will inevitably.
Target the railways.”
He said, calling on.
Western partners to provide.
Ukraine with more.
Air defence systems.
‘I know you are a friend,
the little voice went on;
‘a dear friend,
and an old friend.
And you won’t hurt me,
though I am an insect.’
‘What kind of insect?’
Alice inquired a little anxiously.
According to the newspaper.
‘Mordor’ has launched.
More than 1,500 drones.
At Ukraine in recent days.
Around 800 of these.
Are jet-powered.
Which are more difficult.
To shoot down.
What she really
wanted to know was,
whether it could
sting or not,
but she thought
this wouldn’t be
quite a civil question
to ask.
Separately.
Another publication highlights.
A problem.
With ballistics.
‘Mordor’ produces around.
100 such missiles a month.
Whilst Ukraine is.
Short of interceptors.
‘What, then you don’t –’
the little voice again,
when it was drowned
by a shrill scream
from the engine,
and everybody jumped up
in alarm,
Alice among the rest.
It highlights.
Another aspect of this threat.
Ukraine is preparing.
For winter.
By reinforcing power stations.
And substations.
Stockpiling gas and.
Bolstering its air defence capabilities.
The Horse, who had put
his head out of the window,
quietly drew it in and said,
‘It’s only a brook we have to jump over.’
Everybody seemed satisfied
with this, though Alice felt
a little nervous at the idea
of trains jumping at all.
Journalists suggest that around.
140 of Ukrenergo’s substations.
Could become one of.
‘Orcs’ main targets.
Kyiv, Odesa and Kryvyi Rih.
Remain the most vulnerable.
If ‘orcs’ strikes were to knock out.
Local power generation capacity.
It would be extremely.
Difficult to supply.
These cities.
With electricity.
‘However, it’ll take us
into the Fourth Square,
that’s some comfort!’
she said to herself.
In another moment
she felt the carriage rise
straight up into the air,
and in her fright
However.
Large-scale attacks.
On the power grid could have.
Wider-reaching consequences.
Without a stable electricity supply.
Problems may arise.
With the water supply.
And with it.
With the operation.
With the operation.
Of the sewerage system.
And central heating.
In Kyiv.
Around 2,500 out of.
15,000 buildings lack.
Backup heating sources.
she caught at the thing
nearest to her hand,
which happened to be
the Goat’s beard.
But the beard seemed to
melt away as she touched it,
and she found herself
sitting quietly under a tree
So the key question.
This winter is whether.
Ukraine will be able to.
Prevent power cuts.
From triggering.
A chain reaction.
That leaves cities.
Without heat and water.
– while the Gnat
(for that was the insect
she had been talking to)
was balancing itself
on a twig
just over her head,
and fanning her
with its wings.
*Because I read “12 загиблих у Києві і Борисполі від ракетного удару Росії: половина жертв – залізничники, зруйноване депо(12 killed in Kyiv and Boryspil from Russian missile strike: half of victims are railway workers, depot destroyed) ” on 1 Sep 2026, and “Росія посилює удари по залізниці й відкриває нову фазу війни – аналіз Guardian (Russia intensifies rail strikes, opens new phase of war – Guardian analysis)” by Olesya Zhygalyuk on 2 Sep 2026, both 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, including reports from the British Guardian indicates, reports from the Economist, a story of Pertsovsky, a story of Leshchenko, a story of Zayets, and a story of Andriy, led by ‘THROUGH the LOOKING-GLASS’ written by Lewis Carroll, you know.
Please read the original stories on the BBC news Ukraine:
Росія посилює удари по залізниці й відкриває нову фазу війни – аналіз Guardian – BBC News Україна
