VOA新闻杂志2022--被遗忘的乌克兰公民

Ukraine’s Forgotten Citizens

As the war in Ukraine continues, millions of refugees have fled across the borders and millions more have been displaced. Many have forgotten another at-risk group in Ukraine since the war started. This group is the elderly, or people who are over age 65. This group of people is one of the most vulnerable in Ukraine.

People like 71-year-old Vladimir Lignov. He remembers that on March 21, 2022, he went outside. A shell hit his home in Avdiivka, an industrial center in eastern Ukraine, and then he lost his arm.

Lignov was first treated in a hospital in Myrnorad where the fighting is continuing. The doctors there said he should come back after a week for more treatment. At the hospital in Dnipro where Lignov is currently staying, they said that he should come back in three days.

He said that he can still feel his arm. Although he is safe now at a refugee center, he is confused.

"I don't understand what's going on. Maybe it's better if I just go to the graveyard¹. I don't want to go on living," Lignov said.

Federico Dessi is the Ukraine director of the organization Handicap International. This group provides equipment to the elderly and disabled and will provide financial support to the refugee center in Dnipro, Ukraine.

Dessi said that elderly people are "forgotten and very vulnerable" during times of war. Not including physical health, they need other types of care that are not easy to access.

"(They are) cut off from their families... (and) sometimes unable to use telephones or communicate," Dessi said.

Olga Volkova is the volunteer director for the Dnipro refugee center. It houses up to 84 residents. Most of them are elderly.

"The hardest are the people who spent long stretches in cellars. A lot of people were left on their own. We helped them before the war, but then they were left to fend² for themselves," Volkova said.

Aleksandra Vasiltchenko is an 80-year-old ethnic³ Russian from Ukraine. She spent several weeks alone in her three-room apartment in the eastern city of Kramatorsk before she escaped. She is one of the luckier ones. Her grandson came to pick her up from the Dnipro home.

"I was hiding all the time in the bathroom. I was constantly crying. I was imprisoned⁴ in my own flat," Vasiltchenko said.

Zoya Taran also considers herself lucky despite her health problems. Her son left a career in music two decades ago to take care of her.

"I am that elderly babushka. My son is my eyes, my hands and my legs. I have nothing on my own," she said as she smiled.

She did not leave in the beginning of the war, but as the Russian attack moved closer to Sloviansk, Taran decide to leave.

"Why do we need this war? What do they want from us?" she said as she cried.

Based on Ukrainian governmental numbers, Handicap International states that approximately 13,000 elderly or people with disabilities have come to the Dnipro area since the start of the Russian invasion. Other centers have also offered shelter to the elderly from the east.

Yulia Panfiorova is 83 years old and is from Lysychansk in the Luhansk region. Russian forces have attacked that area. She is one of the 30 new arrivals to a center where there are almost 100 people already.

Panfiorova, who cannot hear very well, said that she was very frightened by the sounds of shelling. Three shells were so close to her home that her windows broke.

She has lived through three wars: World War II, this current Russian invasion and the 2014 fight between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Kremlin rebels.

"Lysychansk was freed from the Nazis⁵ in 1943. I remember how we returned home. Of course, I have some memories about it. They were Nazis. Then our country was invaded, and now our country has been invaded by a foreign state. Then the freedom of our state was at threat. Now it is the same. We should fight... But the war is so scary," Panfiorova said.

Words in This Story

vulnerable - adj. weak, helpless exposed

confused - adj. unable to understand or think clearly

graveyard - n. a place where dead people are buried.

cellars - n. the part of a building that is entirely⁶ or partly below the ground

flat - n. an apartment

fend - v. to protect of defend

imprisoned - v. to be held in a jail or prison

babushka - n. a grandmother

1 graveyard   

n.坟场

参考例句：

• All the town was drifting toward the graveyard.全镇的人都象流水似地向那坟场涌过去。
• Living next to a graveyard would give me the creeps.居住在墓地旁边会使我毛骨悚然。

2 fend   

v.照料（自己），（自己）谋生，挡开，避开

参考例句：

• I've had to fend for myself since I was 14.我从十四岁时起就不得不照料自己。
• He raised his arm up to fend branches from his eyes.他举手将树枝从他眼前挡开。

3 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。

4 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

5 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。