VOA标准英语2015--Under Siege, Ukraine Awaits Decision on Lethal Aid

 

Under Siege, Ukraine Awaits Decision on Lethal¹ Aid

PAPASNA, LUHANSK OBLAST, UKRAINE—

At the last checkpoint before the battle zone, Ukrainian troops keep a careful watch on who goes in, while families squeeze into cars to leave and busloads of children head out to relatives or shelters.  

Just beyond is the mostly deserted² town of Papasna, which has repeatedly been hit by shelling. Many of those who remain support the rebels and are not happy to see Western visitors.

Mayor Yuriy Onishenko and a handful of his staff members, who are loyal to the Kyiv government, try to keep working amid the shelling.

“As mayor, I can not even list all my functions, because everything depends on me now," Onishenko said. "The first half of my working day, my deputy and I go in my personal car, and the seven or eight city workers I still have also go out, and we bring hot food to the people taking shelter in the basements.”

Not far away is Debaltseve, where Ukrainian troops are holding on, in the face of a siege that's lasted more than a week.

The new governor of the partly occupied Donetsk region, Ukrainian Army General Alexander Kihtenko, is clear on what is needed.

“Of course, as a military man, as a general of the Ukrainian army, I can say that, yes, we really need military aid today, including communication and reconnaissance equipment, and other modern weaponry, probably anti-tank weapons," Kihtenko said. "We have specialists who can use modern weapons.  But of course some instructors³ would also be helpful.”

The governor has a new artifact in his office: a piece of one of the shells officials say hit the city of Mariupol two weeks ago, killing⁴ 30 people.

Western economic sanctions have not persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin to back off on his support for the rebels. Providing weapons would increase the pressure, but the reaction is hard to predict, said analyst⁵ Yaroslav Voitko of the International Center for Policy Studies in Kyiv.

Provision of lethal weapons might convince Putin "that the world is serious in stopping this," Voitko said. "But his reactions could not be predicted, and anything, unfortunately, is possible.”

It is that unpredictability that has kept the foreign weapons out so far.  But beleaguered⁶ troops may soon be getting more help, as they struggle to hold the line.

1 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

2 deserted   

adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的

参考例句：

• The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
• The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。

3 instructors   

指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The instructors were slacking on the job. 教员们对工作松松垮垮。
• He was invited to sit on the rostrum as a representative of extramural instructors. 他以校外辅导员身份，被邀请到主席台上。

4 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

5 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

6 beleaguered   

adj.受到围困[围攻]的；包围的v.围攻( beleaguer的过去式和过去分词)；困扰；骚扰

参考例句：

• The beleaguered party leader was forced to resign. 那位饱受指责的政党领导人被迫辞职。
• We are beleaguered by problems. 我们被许多困难所困扰。 来自《简明英汉词典》