经济学人:乌克兰的前线 渴望平静

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　　乌克兰的前线

　　Longing¹ for silence

　　渴望平静

　　Diplomacy² fails the folk on the edge

　　外交政策未能使民众满意

　　A subterranean³ life

　　（住在地下的生活）

　　LYUBA VOEVCHIK lives underground. Her neighbourhood, the Petrovsky district of Donetsk, is close to eastern Ukraine's front line. When shells began landing on her street last summer, she moved to the dank basement of a local cultural centre, where she and her two youngest sons share a narrow bed with faded pink sheets. Frightened and exhausted⁴, Ms Voevchik has not slept at home in nearly a year. The latest ceasefire has provided little solace⁵. “They should hush⁶ up,” Ms Voevchik says with a sigh. “They promised.”

　　LYUBA VOEVCHIK女士住在顿涅茨克的彼得罗夫斯基区的地下室里，邻近乌克兰东部前线。去年夏天，炮弹开始落在她家门口的街道上时，她搬去了当地文化中心潮湿的地下室，在那里，她和她两个年幼的儿子一起睡在一张狭窄的床上，床上铺着褪色了的粉色床单。既惊恐万分又筋疲力尽的VOEVCHIK女士几乎一年没有睡在家里了。最近的停火给她带来了一丝安慰。VOEVCHIK女士叹了口气说道：“他们应该加快速度，他们保证过。”

　　乌克兰的前线.jpg

　　Those promises were the subject of high-level talks between Russia and America last week. John Kerry, America's secretary of state, conferred with Vladimir Putin, Russia's president. Victoria Nuland, another American envoy⁷, shuttled between Kievand Moscow, urging compliance⁸ with the faltering⁹ Minsk peace plan.

　　这些承诺是上周俄罗斯和美国高层谈话的结果。美国国务卿约翰·克里与俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京一起商讨此事。另一位美国使者，维多利亚·纽兰，往返于基辅与莫斯科之间，督促他们遵守摇摇欲坠的明斯克和平计划。

　　But as diplomats¹⁰ keep talking, the guns keep sputtering¹¹ and civilians¹³ like Ms Voevchik keep suffering. The United Nations estimates that the war has left 5m people in need of humanitarian¹⁴ help. Of the more than 6,000 killed since last April, most have been civilians. Some 2m people have been displaced, and countless¹⁵ more reduced to lives of basic survival. Worst hit are the sick, the elderly and children.

　　但随着外交官们谈判的继续，双方仍然在交火。像Voevchik女士这样的百姓一直饱受磨难。据联合国预计，战争使得五百万人民需要人道主义援助。去年四月以来，超过六千人死亡，其中大多数都是平民百姓。大约两百万人流离失所，无数的人只能勉强维持基本生存。病人、老人和孩子受到最大的创伤。

　　The woes¹⁶ of front-line residents have mounted as the authorities who are supposed to succour them vanish. Ukraine's government has stopped financing the separatist-held territories (including pension payments and doctors' salaries), and has offered haphazard¹⁷ help to the internally displaced on its side of the lines.

　　原本应该提供帮助的当局消失后，前线居民的痛苦日益增加。乌克兰政府已经停止资助在分裂分子控制领土上的人（包括退休金和医生的薪水），并且只为分界线境内流离失所的人们提供随机帮助。

　　The separatist leadership has proved capable of little more than waging war. Russia's aid to the region has been heavy on guns and light on butter. “It turned out that nobody cares about the people,”says Evgeniy Shibalov, co-founder of Responsible Citizens, a volunteer-run humanitarian aid group in Donetsk.The outside world has ignored the plight¹⁸ of theDonbas region, treating war as a geopolitical rather than a humanitarian problem. Of the $316m the UN requested for aid toUkraine this year, only a quarter has been pledged.

　　分裂分子领导人已被证明只有能力发动战争。俄罗斯为乌克兰提供的救援中，多数为枪支，而不是生活供给。Responsible Citizens，这个由志愿者经营的人道主义援助小组位于顿涅茨克，其共同创始人Evgeniy Shibalov表示：“结果居然没有人关心人民。”世界忽视了顿巴斯地区的困境，把战争看成地理政治问题，而不是人道主义问题。联合国要求今年给乌克兰提供3亿1千6百万美元的救助，而只有四分之一到位。

　　Humanitarian organisations and volunteers have stepped in. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) opened five offices in the area. Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a health charity, has sent dozens of doctors. During the heaviest fighting, Responsible Citizens delivered aid to “red zone” areas which others deemed too dangerous. Pomozhem, a foundation started by Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest oligarch and a native of Donetsk, distributes monthly food handouts¹⁹ to over 800,000 people on both sides of the lines. More still sign up every month. The foundation's 12kg package of essentials like salt, sugar, pasta and flour “helps us survive in this nightmare”, says one pensioner²⁰ from Donetsk's Kievskiy district, which borders the city's heavily bombed airport.

　　人道主义组织和志愿者们已经介入。国际红十字会在乌克兰开设了五个办事处。一个健康慈善机构Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF)已经往乌克兰派遣了几十名医生。在战斗最激烈的时候，Responsible Citizens小组给“红色地带”，这个其他人视作危险地区的区域提供救援。Rinat Akhmetov是乌克兰最富有的寡头，也是顿涅茨克本地人，由他创建的Pomozhem基金会，每个月为前线八十多万人提供食品救济，救助人数每个月还在不断增加。Pomozhem基金会用于运送像盐，糖，意大利面和面粉这些生活必需品的十二公斤包裹“帮助我们在噩梦中存活下来”， 一位来自顿涅茨克Kievskiy区的老人如是说。Kievskiy区毗邻被严重轰炸的机场区域。

　　When war was raging, aid workers focused on treating the wounded and evacuating²¹ civilians. Now, as fighting has ebbed²² (though not fully²³ ceased), attention has turned to securing medical and food supplies and rebuilding damaged homes. Ukrainian government restrictions²⁴ have exacerbated²⁵ supply shortages, limited civilian¹² access to aid and deepened resentment²⁶ in separatist-held areas. Pensioners²⁷ can only retrieve²⁸ funds in government-controlled territory, and many are physically²⁹ or economically unable to get there. To cross the lines, residents need a pass from the Kiev authorities; that can take months. The rebel authorities pay pensions sporadically³⁰.

　　战争肆虐时，救援工人专注于治疗伤者并撤出群众。现在，随着战争消退（虽然没有完全停止），注意力已经转向确保医疗和食物供应，以及重建受损的房屋。乌克兰政府已经加重了对供应短缺的限制，限制群众接受救助，加深对分裂分子控制区域的不满。老人只能在政府控制的领土领取退休金，而许多人由于身体或经济原因无法到达那里。要想越过分界线，居民需要一张由基辅当局批准的通行证，而这往往需要等待数月。反叛政府偶尔支付养老金。

　　Other problems will linger long after all fire ceases. “When the conflict stops, it doesn't mean life goes completely back to normal,” says David Nash of MSF in Donetsk. Unexploded ordnance³¹ hides along country roads. Psychological trauma³² haunts daily life. At one school near the front, childish drawings adorn³³ the wall. Subjects include two soldiers running through a field beside two tanks under a receding³⁴ sun, an old woman and a boy huddled³⁵ with their cat and dog in front of a burning home, and two children gripping their mother in candlelight, with the words, “Give us back the quiet!”

　　其他问题将在全面停火后仍然持续存在。来自顿涅茨克的MSF机构的David Nash表示：“冲突停止后，并不意味着生活将完全回归正常。”未爆炸武器藏于国家道路中。心里创伤影响着人们的日常生活。在一所靠近前线的学校里，稚嫩的绘画装饰着墙壁。夕阳西下，两名战士穿过两架坦克旁的一片田野；一位老妇人和一个男孩与猫和狗一起蜷缩于燃烧的房屋前；两名儿童在烛光中紧抓着他们的母亲，嘴里说到：“让我们重回安静的生活！”

　　1.long for 渴望；盼望

　　例句:Senior citizens long for a more predictable and secure future.

　　老年人渴望有一个更稳定、更可预见的未来。

　　2.close to 接近；靠近；亲近

　　例句:Three mortar³⁶ shells had landed close to a crowd of people.

　　3枚迫击炮弹落在人群旁。

　　3.move to 搬到；移动到

　　例句:They are selling their house to move to a smaller one.

　　他们正打算卖掉房子，然后搬到一个小一点的住处。

　　4.reduce to 下降至；减少到

　　例句:I must reduce to get into that fine dress.

　　要想穿上那件好衣服,我就得减肥。

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