(On 21 July 2022, it was reported that 15,000 Russians have died in Ukraine and 45,000 have been wounded).

 

Fifteen thousand Russians dead in Ukraine;

Innocents, for the most part, made guilty

By the vicious vanity of old men,

Using the war like a wild young lover,

To prove they can do it, still get it up.

In their pointless, far-off rumpus, blood spills

As one hundred per day give up the ghost:

Bombed, blasted, burned, shot, all variations

On the path to death. Strewn haphazardly,

Each leave families, multiplying grief.

Locals bury some bodies, while the rest

Are casually bagged, or not seen again.

Three times as many are wounded, not dead;

But that’s just a detail, as someone said.