美国国家公共电台 NPR--Ukraine's army faces a big test in the war: trying to retake the city of Kherson

Ukraine's army faces a big test in the war: trying to retake the city of Kherson

Transcript¹

A 29-year-old battalion² commander is helping³ lead Ukraine's counteroffensive near Kherson. He says the fight is costly⁴ but his troops have already won ground.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

Ukraine's army is facing one of the biggest tests of the war. Can it retake the strategic southern city of Kherson, which Russia occupied in the early days of the invasion? NPR's Brian Mann traveled to a command post near the front line, north of Kherson, where he met one of the battalion commanders leading the counteroffensive.

BRIAN MANN, BYLINE⁵: After a long drive over old Soviet⁶-era roads, I find the 98th Infantry⁷ Battalion headquarters in a half-abandoned town called Apostolove. It's in a battered⁸ building surrounded by an iron fence.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Tea or coffee?

MANN: What's that?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Tea or coffee?

MANN: No, I'm good, thank you.

After a short wait, the battalion commander, Serhiy Shatalov, comes out - a stocky man with a couple days' growth beard and close-cropped black hair. He says we should talk outside in the overgrown garden, and I ask how far away the Russians are.

SERHIY SHATALOV: From here, like, around 11 kilometers.

MANN: Seven miles. It's a hot summer day, and we sit on a bench in the shade.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOURNING DOVES CALLING)

MANN: Mourning doves call from the trees while we talk. Shatalov tells me the Russians used to be much closer, threatening the outskirts⁹ of this town, but his men have been steadily¹⁰ pushing them back toward Kherson.

SHATALOV: So we are advanced already.

MANN: How far would you say you've pushed forward?

SHATALOV: Eleven kilometers.

MANN: Eleven?

SHATALOV: Yeah.

MANN: The fighting is brutal¹¹, with Ukraine and Russia exchanging artillery¹² fire. Troops and tanks clash in a maze¹³ of farm fields and rivers, villages and old industrial sites.

SHATALOV: This is war. You cannot predict nothing - absolutely nothing.

MANN: Our conversation is interrupted as Russian tanks open fire in the distance. Shatalov grins and shrugs¹⁴. It's normal, he says. Tank fire, air raid sirens - nobody even notices anymore. The city of Kherson was one of Moscow's earliest, easiest victories in this war. It's an important transport hub and bridge crossing on the Dnipro River near the Black Sea. Ukraine desperately¹⁵ wants to take it back. Ukrainian officials say they've now pushed close enough. Their own long-range artillery supplied by the U.S. and other Western countries is able to threaten key Russian supply routes. Shatalov tells me this progress has often been hard won against well-trained Russian troops.

SHATALOV: Sometimes we encounter it with real strong guy, like, an airborne guy.

MANN: But other times, he says, Russian units appear disorganized with low morale¹⁶, even frightened. I ask about the spirit of his own men, some of them fighting five months straight.

SHATALOV: When we lost some guys, everybody, including me, felt not very well. But after that, like, we all realize this war, you know, and then let's make - that made my guys anger and to provide a good revenge for them.

MANN: It's war, he says, and his men want revenge. The U.S. and other Western countries are counting on officers like Serhiy Shatalov to give Ukraine an important edge in this war. Ukraine is often outmanned and outgunned in this fight. Shatalov's advantage is he was trained by the U.S. Army. He just spent time in a course in Virginia. He says under the U.S. style of command, the 600 men he leads are much more nimble and proactive than the Russians, who still operate on the old Soviet model of central control.

SHATALOV: Because a commander like me, I can provide my decision. I can decide what my guy's supposed to doing right now, not waiting for a special order.

MANN: But Shatalov says retaking Kherson will be costly and will only get harder in the days and weeks ahead. One complication - he says, Ukraine's army is pushing deeper into places where many civilians¹⁷ are ethnic¹⁸ Russians whose loyalty¹⁹ is uncertain. Shatalov compares the environment here to the U.S. fight in Vietnam. It's hard, he says, to know friend from enemy.

SHATALOV: Mostly pro-Russians.

MANN: Really?

SHATALOV: Really.

MANN: Do you have to be - and your men - do you have to be extra careful?

SHATALOV: Of course, yes. Do not talk with anybody. Nobody knows who I am.

MANN: The goal of retaking Kherson - do you have any sense for how long that's going to take?

SHATALOV: I do not know, to be honest. I do not know. I was thinking, like, firstly, like, OK, it's probably going to be very fast, but now it's like, you know, absolutely unpredictable, so.

MANN: How old are you?

SHATALOV: Twenty-nine.

MANN: Serhiy Shatalov is only 29 years old. He looks weary as we talk and says what he's doing here, leading the 98th Infantry Battalion, is often a heavy weight.

SHATALOV: It's very hard for me, to be honest, very hard to make that decision. But it's something higher, this commitment for Ukrainian people, you know? I can be killed also. I have no insurance, and nobody has.

MANN: Retaking a city like Kherson would give Ukraine's army its biggest victory since it broke the siege of Kyiv. It would be a major embarrassment²⁰ for Moscow and Vladimir Putin. Victory is far from certain. The British Defense²¹ Ministry²² released an intelligence report saying Ukraine's offensive is fierce enough that Russia's generals will have to shift troops from other key areas if they hope to hold Kherson.

Brian Mann, NPR News, Apostolove, Ukraine.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 battalion   

n.营；部队；大队(的人)

参考例句：

• The town was garrisoned by a battalion.该镇由一营士兵驻守。
• At the end of the drill parade,the battalion fell out.操练之后，队伍解散了。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

7 infantry   

n.[总称]步兵(部队)

参考例句：

• The infantry were equipped with flame throwers.步兵都装备有喷火器。
• We have less infantry than the enemy.我们的步兵比敌人少。

8 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

9 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

10 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

11 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

12 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

13 maze   

n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑

参考例句：

• He found his way through the complex maze of corridors.他穿过了迷宮一样的走廊。
• She was lost in the maze for several hours.一连几小时，她的头脑处于一片糊涂状态。

14 shrugs   

n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany shrugs off this criticism. 匈牙利总理久尔恰尼对这个批评不以为然。 来自互联网
• She shrugs expressively and takes a sip of her latte. 她表达地耸肩而且拿她的拿铁的啜饮。 来自互联网

15 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

16 morale   

n.道德准则，士气，斗志

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is sinking lower every day.敌军的士气日益低落。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

17 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

18 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

19 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

20 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

21 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

22 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。