美国国家公共电台 NPR--The stories of Ukrainian citizens who formed espionage cells to help liberate Kherson

The stories of Ukrainian citizens who formed espionage¹ cells to help liberate² Kherson

Transcript³

The southern port of Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city occupied by Russian forces. Despite deep ties to Russia, an army of citizen spies helped to liberate the city in November.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The southern port city of Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city occupied by Russian forces. With deep historical ties to Russia, it was not expected to be a center of resistance, but an army of citizen spies defied Moscow's expectations and helped Ukrainian forces liberate the city last November. NPR's Joanna Kakissis has the story of Kherson and its citizens turned partisans⁴.

JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE⁵: Let's start with the day of the invasion, February 24, 2022.

(SOUNDBITE OF DISHES CLATTERING)

KAKISSIS: Tetiana Horobstova, a retired⁶ physics teacher, remembers it again as a beautiful day in Russia.

TETIANA HOROBSTOVA: (Speaking Russian).

KAKISSIS: She remembers making breakfast and watching from her balcony as the sun rose, turning the sky pink and illuminating⁷ green fields bursting with the winter harvest.

HOROBSTOVA: (Through interpreter) And then I heard the explosions. And then I saw the explosions - one near the airport, then a second, the third at a gas station. It seemed to turn everything red.

KAKISSIS: Horobstova started to cry. She was born in Russia and did not believe the Russians would ever invade. Kherson used to be a Russian-speaking city. Many here had friends and family in Russia. But she says she and her husband are clear about their loyalties⁸.

HOROBSTOVA: (Through interpreter) We have a Ukrainian flag on our TV and a poster that says, Putin, get out. That's my poster, by the way.

KAKISSIS: Their daughters in western Ukraine begged them to evacuate⁹, but they stayed, along with their youngest daughter, Iryna, who wanted to resist.

(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)

KAKISSIS: The first days of the invasion were chaotic¹⁰.

(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).

KAKISSIS: Ukrainian soldiers fought to keep Russian paratroopers off the Antonivka Bridge, which crosses the Dnipro River into the city of Kherson. Serhiy, a soldier from a local brigade, remembers wondering why Ukrainian authorities had not blown up the bridge on the first day of the invasion.

SERHIY: (Through interpreter) It should have been blown up. That would have slowed down the Russian troops.

KAKISSIS: Serhiy would not reveal his last name because he's in the military. He says he got his wife and children out of Kherson, and then he turned to a special mission.

SERHIY: (Through interpreter) To destroy the enemy's equipment and enemy troops and also to find and kill collaborators.

KAKISSIS: Many civilians¹¹ offered to help, including Oksana Pohomii, a 59-year-old accountant and city council member. With her dyed fire-red hair braided into a rattail, Pohomii looks like a cross between Cyndi Lauper and a Viking.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).

(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).

(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)

KAKISSIS: She and others protested as Russian soldiers took over the city.

OKSANA POHOMII: (Through interpreter) The resistance was everywhere. I remember this boy with an amputated leg in the central market. He played the guitar and sang the Ukrainian national anthem¹². It was really brave.

KAKISSIS: Across Kherson, ordinary civilians became partisans, forming espionage cells, reporting to the Ukrainian military and security services. Pohomii joined one cell with at least 30 members. She kept tabs on who was collaborating¹³ with Russian forces.

POHOMII: (Through interpreter) I saw there were three types of people in Kherson - those who will die for Ukraine, those who will die for Russia and those who do not care, who are like, Ukraine is OK, but Russia took over now, and that's also OK.

KAKISSIS: Pohomii took photos and videos and eavesdropped¹⁴ on conversations, then pass on the information to Ukraine's security services. Suspected collaborators included some of her own fellow city council members and even some classmates.

POHOMII: (Through interpreter) We saw a list of those who organized the referendum to join Russia. And on that list was the son of one of my classmates. And she was a teacher of Ukrainian history.

KAKISSIS: Pohomii's closest friend, Olha Chupikova, a 48-year-old landscape designer, also became a spy. She lived near the Antonivka Bridge. She served as the eyes and ears of the Ukrainian military.

OLHA CHUPIKOVA: (Through interpreter) I told them everything I saw about Russian troops - where they live, where they put their vehicles. Sometimes I'd pretend that I was going to the grocery store or waiting for the bus. I'm not saying I'm Agent 007, but I just did whatever made sense to me.

(Speaking Ukrainian).

KAKISSIS: With her pixie cut and bright blue eyes, she looks like a Minnesota soccer mom who's about to offer you a freshly baked pie.

CHUPIKOVA: (Through interpreter) They wanted us to look average, unremarkable, not easy, to remember so we could work undetected as if we were moving between drops of rain.

KAKISSIS: They used Google Maps to find coordinates¹⁵ of Russian convoys¹⁷ and sent them via Signal to a contact in Ukraine's military. When cellphone service was weak, she would climb to the roof of her house and throw her phone up in the air, hoping for a signal to send her messages.

CHUPIKOVA: (Through interpreter) I was really scared the first time I was on the roof. We are not professional spies. We are amateurs. But if not us, then who?

KAKISSIS: Russian troops were watching everyone closely. Chupikova says residents were getting arrested for simply giving Russian soldiers dirty looks. Tetiana Horobstova, the retired teacher who watched the invasion from her balcony, worried for her daughter Iryna. She says Iryna spent months driving all over the city, giving rides to nurses and doctors secretly helping¹⁸ injured Ukrainians. And then on May 13, Iryna's 37th birthday, two cars pulled up outside the house.

HOROBSTOVA: (Through interpreter) There were 11 guys armed to the teeth with their faces covered, wearing military uniforms and waving machine guns and pistols. Six went upstairs to our apartment and right to Iryna's room. She didn't deny anything. She said, yes, I'm a Ukrainian patriot¹⁹, and I hate you. And they took her away.

KAKISSIS: Hundreds of others disappeared, too, including the elected mayor of Kherson, who was arrested in June.

OLEKSANDR DIAKOV: (Speaking Ukrainian).

KAKISSIS: By the end of summer, several members of Oleksandr Diakov’s espionage cell had also been arrested. Diakov, a shy, bearded apartment manager, had spent months spying on Russian-installed politicians for Ukraine's security services.

DIAKOV: (Through interpreter) I knew that sooner or later, the Russians would find me, too. They arrested me when I was hiding at a friend's house.

KAKISSIS: They covered his head and took him to a prison cell. He says the Russian soldiers beat him repeatedly and also tortured him with electric shocks.

DIAKOV: (Through interpreter) They kicked me so badly in my leg and kept saying, we're going to break it. My leg got infected. I begged for a doctor.

KAKISSIS: After more than two weeks of detention²⁰, he was loaded into a van and driven to what looked like the outskirts²¹ of town.

DIAKOV: (Through interpreter) I thought they were taking me not to the doctor, but to the forest.

KAKISSIS: To the forest so they could execute you.

DIAKOV: Yeah.

KAKISSIS: Had they done that to other people you know?

DIAKOV: (Through interpreter) I know many people who died.

KAKISSIS: The Russians ended up taking Diakov to a hospital, and a doctor there helped him escape instead of returning him to Russian custody²². The underground resistance was having an impact. Politicians installed by the Russians were assassinated²³. When Ukraine got sophisticated missiles from the U.S. military, officials say the partisans helped Ukrainian troops target sites like the Antonivka Bridge, which cut off Russian supply routes. And by November, Ukrainian forces had pushed the Russians to the other side of the Dnipro River. On the night of Nov. 10, Oleksandr Diakov heard a convoy¹⁶ of vehicles outside his bedroom.

DIAKOV: (Through interpreter) They were blasting Ukrainian music, and I realized our guys were entering the city. Every day, we were waiting for this.

KAKISSIS: By the next morning, Ukrainian troops controlled the city.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Chanting in non-English language).

KAKISSIS: Residents poured into the streets and cheered.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Non-English language spoken).

KAKISSIS: Oksana Pohomii, the city councilwoman, helped replace Russian flags with Ukrainian ones. Her former classmate, who had helped Russians try to annex²⁴ Kherson tried to stop her.

POHOMII: (Through interpreter) She said, what are you doing? Maybe the Russians will come back.

KAKISSIS: Pohomii says the classmate and her family soon left for Russia. Other pro-Russian residents fled across the Dnipro River to a part of the Kherson region still occupied by Russian forces. More than three months after liberation, Russian forces remain across the river, less than a mile away, and they hit Kherson every day with rockets, missiles or artillery²⁵. More than 80 civilians have died. Only 60,000 people of the city's pre-war population of 300,000 remain.

Oh, man, that smells nice.

Pohomii now runs a volunteer bakery with her friend Olha Chupikova, the one who used to spy on the Russian military near the Antonivka Bridge.

POHOMII: (Speaking Ukrainian).

CHUPIKOVA: (Speaking Ukrainian).

KAKISSIS: They are dusted with flour as they show us. Pohomii says they deliver the free bread to residents.

(SOUNDBITE OF SCRAPING)

POHOMII: (Through interpreter) We never try to force anyone to stay because not everyone can take it. I know people who don't leave their homes. I know people who could handle the shelling at first, but then something broke inside them after the shelling killed people. They stop eating and drinking. And I said, it's time to leave.

KAKISSIS: Many partisans are still missing, presumed to be somewhere in Russian custody. Tetiana Horobstova's daughter Iryna is among them. Horobstova is pleading with her fellow ethnic²⁶ Russians to free her daughter. Horobstova's Russian roots are now a deep source of heartache.

HOROBSTOVA: (Speaking Russian).

KAKISSIS: "I feel ashamed," she says, "as if it was me personally who started this terrible war."

HOROBSTOVA: (Speaking Russian).

KAKISSIS: Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Kherson.

(SOUNDBITE OF NILS FRAHM'S "THEM")

1 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

2 liberate   

v.解放，使获得自由，释出，放出；vt.解放，使获自由

参考例句：

• They did their best to liberate slaves.他们尽最大能力去解放奴隶。
• This will liberate him from economic worry.这将消除他经济上的忧虑。

3 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。

4 partisans   

游击队员( partisan的名词复数 )； 党人； 党羽； 帮伙

参考例句：

• Every movement has its partisans. 每一运动都有热情的支持者。
• He was rescued by some Italian partisans. 他被几名意大利游击队员所救。

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 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

7 illuminating   

a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的

参考例句：

• We didn't find the examples he used particularly illuminating. 我们觉得他采用的那些例证启发性不是特别大。
• I found his talk most illuminating. 我觉得他的话很有启发性。

8 loyalties   

n.忠诚( loyalty的名词复数 )；忠心；忠于…感情；要忠于…的强烈感情

参考例句：

• an intricate network of loyalties and relationships 忠诚与义气构成的盘根错节的网络
• Rows with one's in-laws often create divided loyalties. 与姻亲之间的矛盾常常让人两面为难。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

10 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

11 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。

12 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

13 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。

14 eavesdropped   

偷听（别人的谈话）( eavesdrop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He eavesdropped on our conversation. 他偷听了我们的谈话。
• He has just eavesdropped two sweethearts. 他刚刚偷听了两个情人的谈话。

15 coordinates   

n.相配之衣物；坐标( coordinate的名词复数 )；（颜色协调的）配套服装；[复数]女套服；同等重要的人（或物）v.使协调，使调和( coordinate的第三人称单数 )；协调；协同；成为同等

参考例句：

• The town coordinates on this map are 695037. 该镇在这幅地图上的坐标是695037。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 convoy   

vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队

参考例句：

• The convoy was snowed up on the main road.护送队被大雪困在干路上了。
• Warships will accompany the convoy across the Atlantic.战舰将护送该船队过大西洋。

17 convoys   

n.（有护航的）船队( convoy的名词复数 )；车队；护航（队）；护送队

参考例句：

• Truck convoys often stop over for lunch here. 车队经常在这里停下来吃午饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A UN official said aid programs will be suspended until there's adequate protection for relief convoys. 一名联合国官员说将会暂停援助项目，直到援助车队能够得到充分的保护为止。 来自辞典例句

18 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。

19 patriot   

n.爱国者，爱国主义者

参考例句：

• He avowed himself a patriot.他自称自己是爱国者。
• He is a patriot who has won the admiration of the French already.他是一个已经赢得法国人敬仰的爱国者。

20 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

21 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。

22 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

23 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

24 annex   

vt.兼并，吞并；n.附属建筑物

参考例句：

• It plans to annex an England company in order to enlarge the market.它计划兼并一家英国公司以扩大市场。
• The annex has been built on to the main building.主楼配建有附属的建筑物。

25 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。

26 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。