A closer look at the volunteers who are signing up to fight the Russians

A closer look at the volunteers who are signing up to fight the Russians

Transcript¹

Ukraine's western city of Lviv has, so far, been spared the worst of Russia's invasion. But a diverse resistance is taking shape there and is reinforcing some of the cities now under attack.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

It's a city that has so far been spared the worst of Russia's war on Ukraine. And that means it's had time to prepare and even reinforce the cities now under attack. Here a diverse resistance is taking shape. And it's made up of everyone from rank-and-file soldiers to a seasoned fighter driven by ideology² to a house painter who's never picked up a weapon. At a military enlistment³ center, men are signing up to fight. A couple women that are nurses want to be military medics. They turn around and see Zhora Malconyan.

And I saw you walking up with your duffle bag. What are you going to do here?

ZHORA MALCONYAN: (Through interpreter) Defend the Ukraine.

FADEL: The 19-year-old is trying to sign up to fight. The interior design student says when he tried last week, it was chaos⁴.

MALCONYAN: (Through interpreter) They were only taking the people who served before. So now I'm back here to try to sign up again.

FADEL: He hates the Russian government for attacking his country, the Belarusian government for threatening to join the attack, but not the people. His grandparents are in Belarus. He talks to them every day and sends the money.

What do you want to do? Where do you want to go?

MALCONYAN: (Through interpreter) Wherever I would be sent - I don't care.

FADEL: So if they send - if they say, all right, go to Kharkiv, go to Kyiv, you're ready. You're going to go today.

MALCONYAN: (Through interpreter) Of course. Yes.

FADEL: You're not scared?

MALCONYAN: (Through interpreter) No. Why? They came to our land. So they have to be scared, not us.

FADEL: What's in your bag?

(SOUNDBITE OF VELCRO OPENING)

MALCONYAN: (Through interpreter) Metal cups, a bag, uniform, medic - sweets.

FADEL: So you're ready to go.

MALCONYAN: (Through interpreter) Yes (laughter).

FADEL: He runs off to get in line as Yulia Kravatz and her brother embrace their father. They walk off in tears. Her father fought against Russian forces in 2014 when they annexed⁵ Crimea.

YULIA KRAVATZ: (Crying) And now he's going to the war again. And I hope that it will finish soon because we need our fathers here in our homes. And we want stay in our country. And we want to be freedom from Russia - occupation. And we hope that our father will come back alive.

FADEL: I pray that he will. I pray he will. And what did you just say to him when you said goodbye?

KRAVATZ: Come back alive. We wait on you.

FADEL: Her mother isn't with them. She couldn't face the goodbye.

KRAVATZ: She just told father that she is waiting for him and hope he will come back soon.

FADEL: Did you ever tell him, don't go?

KRAVATZ: Sure. But our father is a nationalist. And he love Ukraine very much. And he said, if I don't go, then who will go? So we need to do this.

UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR⁶ #1: (Speaking Ukrainian).

UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR #2: (Speaking Ukrainian).

(SOUNDBITE OF RIFLE PUMP)

FADEL: Across town, hundreds of people stand in an open field watching three instructors⁷ who rotate - one on first aid, another on how to make Molotov cocktails⁹ and third on weapons. After the demonstration¹⁰, there are questions from the crowd.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Through interpreter). Tell me, please, how many seconds it takes for the whole magazine to be empty.

UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR #1: (Speaking Ukrainian).

FADEL: In the crowd, I find Micola.

And what's your full name?

MICOLA: No - because my family now in Belarus.

FADEL: The fact that he's fighting Russia would put his family in danger in Belarus, where Russia has control and troops are poised¹¹ to join the attack on Ukraine. Micola's with a few other Belarusians learning about weapons. He says they are all part of a group of foreign fighters that are forming to fight Russian troops assaulting Ukrainian cities.

MICOLA: I'm waiting guys from Poland - Belarus guys from Poland. We are united here and go to Kyiv to help our guys.

FADEL: He's here today because some of the men with him have no experience, so they're watching the instructors.

MICOLA: I'd like to hang instead of lamps as much ruskis (ph) as I can.

FADEL: Missiles?

MICOLA: Ruskis - Russians.

FADEL: If you didn't catch that, he says he wants to see Russians hanging from every lamppost. And you said you fought before. Or is that a...

MICOLA: I'm a hunter.

FADEL: OK.

MICOLA: I have a lot of experience for killing¹² animals.

FADEL: But have you ever killed...

MICOLA: So...

FADEL: ...A person?

MICOLA: No. It's more easier to kill a person than animal.

FADEL: Really?

MICOLA: Yeah - because if you hate some person, it's OK. I don't hate animals.

FADEL: Next to him is a tall man with a beard and tattoos¹³ visible on his hand and neck. He gives only his first name, Andree.

ANDREE: I'm the head of the foreign fighters who come from Europe to Azov Battalion¹⁴. This is my group. Now they're going to make a tactical training. Then they're going to go to the front.

FADEL: So let's talk about the Azov Battalion. That regiment¹⁵ has a reputation for having the fiercest fighters in Ukraine. The paramilitary is credited with recapturing the southern port city of Mariupol from Russian separatists in 2014. And despite their neo-Nazi affiliations¹⁶, they were folded into Ukraine's National Guard. Groups like this are what Putin uses when he tries to paint Ukraine as rife¹⁷ with Nazis¹⁸. It's part of his justification¹⁹ for invading. Andree bristles²⁰ when our producer, Graham Smith, asks about a symbol he's wearing.

GRAHAM SMITH, BYLINE²¹: So I can't help but notice the patch on your shoulder.

ANDREE: (Unintelligible).

SMITH: I think it's a patch that's associated with kind of a right-wing political movement.

MICOLA: Cannot say that.

SMITH: What's the name of it?

ANDREE: Cannot say that.

FADEL: He won't say.

SMITH: Political movement.

ANDREE: It's not far-right.

SMITH: I don't know how to describe it.

FADEL: In times of war, people don't always ask questions about who's coming to defend them. And it seems like a lot of people are coming.

ANDREE: A lot of them come from Belarus.

FADEL: Belarus.

ANDREE: Yeah. A lot of them come from Lukashenko regime and Putin. A lot of them come from United States and Germany, Switzerland.

FADEL: You have Americans in your group.

ANDREE: We have Americans. And also, America's on the way.

FADEL: They're on their way.

ANDREE: Yeah.

FADEL: How many Americans would you say are in your group?

ANDREE: Cannot say this.

FADEL: You can't say this. I have to ask, is there any concern to have so many foreign fighters coming to Ukraine that you don't know who they are, why they're coming?

ANDREE: They all been checked.

FADEL: How do you check them?

ANDREE: Cannot say this.

FADEL: So far, only 10 are in the country, but he expects hundreds. And Andree is eager to stop with the logistics and get to the fight in Kyiv.

ANDREE: It actually was funny thing. I told superior guys that I feel like I'm a tour agent and they want to go back (laughter).

FADEL: You feel like a what?

ANDREE: A tour agent - guys come here. Drive this. Go over there. Do this. So the guys - I'm sick of this s***. I'm going to go over there. No way (laughter). There soon will be no Russians left.

FADEL: When do you think you're going to go?

ANDREE: (Sighing).

FADEL: Yet another question that he can't answer.

LUKA: Well, not exactly - but because the city expanded.

FADEL: So we're out in front of this abandoned factory that is now the site, I guess, of people building Molotov cocktails. We're going to go inside and see what's up.

(SOUNDBITE OF PLASTIC TARP RUSTLING)

FADEL: We pull back a plastic curtain and walk through what looks like a hipster cafe and then out back.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS SCRAPING)

FADEL: So this whole courtyard is filled with what look like abandoned buildings. But they're artist studios and apparently²² underground clubs.

LUKA: Oh, you see - it's hanging over there?

FADEL: Who is hanging over there?

LUKA: Vladimir Putin.

FADEL: Oh, wow. There's an effigy²³ over here of this guy. Yeah - Vladimir Putin hanging from a balcony of what looks like an abandoned building.

LUKA: (Speaking Ukrainian).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Ukrainian).

LUKA: It's - American journalist.

FADEL: Hello.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Hey.

FADEL: OK. This is a theater - usually. (Inhale). It smells like gas. This whole room smells like gas.

LUKA: Of course. So don't smoke cigarettes.

FADEL: Don't smoke cigarettes in here (laughter).

LUKA: That open to there?

FADEL: What's back here?

So they just lifted a black curtain, and we walked in, and there's a bunch of empty bottles.

So what is this?

METROV SOVKA: (Speaking Ukrainian).

LUKA: "It's just prepared empty bottles to maybe make the cocktail⁸ for our occupants."

FADEL: It feels like an artist collective - you know, if firebombs weren't being made here. There are bicycles mounted on the wall, one of them covered in dried flowers, spray-painted murals on empty lockers²⁴.

Metrov Sovka is running the operation today. Just last week, before the war started, he was a house painter.

SOVKA: (Speaking Ukrainian).

LUKA: "Now, like, this unites everyone. And I never thought, I'm going to do this. I had absolutely different, like, view on life."

FADEL: You said you had an absolutely different view on life. Like, describe what you were like six days ago.

LUKA: (Speaking Ukrainian). "I like more of a chill, relaxed, laid-back lifestyle. Like, I come back home from work, and I smoke a hookah and I relax,"

FADEL: OK. And so how did you end up being the Molotov cocktail factory guy (laughter)?

SOVKA: Oh, YouTube, Google.

LUKA: "And then we tested it out on that wall over there."

FADEL: Oh. So this black...

SOVKA: Yes. Yes.

FADEL: ...Burns all over this wall is from practicing?

SOVKA: (Speaking Ukrainian).

FADEL: They're sending them to the front lines, to various check points. But Sovka hopes the Russians turn back before these firebombs are ever used.

SOVKA: (Speaking Ukrainian).

LUKA: "So this is a point that we always had friends in Russia. And - but Russian people - we have to understand that it's the Russian government who is the terrorists in this situation."

FADEL: They offer to put one together. They take us outside to show us how it works.

SOVKA: (Speaking Ukrainian).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Ukrainian).

(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS ON GRAVEL)

SOVKA: (Speaking Ukrainian).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking Ukrainian).

(SOUNDBITE OF MOLOTOV COCKTAIL CRASHING AND IGNITING)

FADEL: If the Russians make it here, they say, this is where they'll face their biggest fight.

(SOUNDBITE OF FLAMES CRACKLING)

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 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

3 enlistment   

n.应征入伍，获得，取得

参考例句：

• Illness as a disqualification for enlistment in the army. 疾病是取消参军入伍资格的一个原因。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• One obstacle to the enlistment of able professors was that they had to take holy orders. 征聘有才能的教授的障碍是他们必须成为牧师。 来自辞典例句

4 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

5 annexed   

[法] 附加的，附属的

参考例句：

• Germany annexed Austria in 1938. 1938年德国吞并了奥地利。
• The outlying villages were formally annexed by the town last year. 那些偏远的村庄于去年正式被并入该镇。

6 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

7 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。

8 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

9 cocktails   

n.鸡尾酒( cocktail的名词复数 )；餐前开胃菜；混合物

参考例句：

• Come about 4 o'clock. We'll have cocktails and grill steaks. 请四点钟左右来，我们喝鸡尾酒，吃烤牛排。 来自辞典例句
• Cocktails were a nasty American habit. 喝鸡尾酒是讨厌的美国习惯。 来自辞典例句

10 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

11 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

12 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。

13 tattoos   

n.文身( tattoo的名词复数 )；归营鼓；军队夜间表演操；连续有节奏的敲击声v.刺青，文身( tattoo的第三人称单数 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的胳膊上刺满了花纹。
• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的双臂刺满了纹身。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 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。

15 regiment   

n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制

参考例句：

• As he hated army life,he decide to desert his regiment.因为他嫌恶军队生活，所以他决心背弃自己所在的那个团。
• They reformed a division into a regiment.他们将一个师整编成为一个团。

16 affiliations   

n.联系( affiliation的名词复数 )；附属机构；亲和性；接纳

参考例句：

• She had affiliations of her own in every capital. 她原以为自己在欧洲各国首府都有熟人。 来自辞典例句
• The society has many affiliations throughout the country. 这个社团在全国有很多关系。 来自辞典例句

17 rife   

adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的

参考例句：

• Disease is rife in the area.疾病在这一区很流行。
• Corruption was rife before the election.选举之前腐败盛行。

18 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》

19 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

20 bristles   

短而硬的毛发，刷子毛( bristle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the bristles on his chin 他下巴上的胡楂子
• This job bristles with difficulties. 这项工作困难重重。

21 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。

22 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

23 effigy   

n.肖像

参考例句：

• There the effigy stands,and stares from age to age across the changing ocean.雕像依然耸立在那儿，千秋万载地凝视着那变幻无常的大海。
• The deposed dictator was burned in effigy by the crowd.群众焚烧退位独裁者的模拟像。

24 lockers   

n.寄物柜( locker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I care about more lockers for the teachers. 我关心教师要有更多的储物柜。 来自辞典例句
• Passengers are requested to stow their hand-baggage in the lockers above the seats. 旅客须将随身携带的行李放入座位上方的贮藏柜里。 来自辞典例句