Symbolism or Strategy? Ukraine Battles to Retain Small Gains.

面子或里子？乌克兰为小成果不惜血战

Ukrainian soldiers spent hours ducking in trenches as artillery exploded around them, then dashed for the safety of an armored personnel carrier — only to be chased through the open rear ramp of the vehicle by an exploding drone.

随著火砲在他们周围爆炸，乌克兰官兵躲在壕沟数小时，接著冲向一辆装甲运兵车避难，结果却被一架自杀无人机一路追到运兵车打开的后车门。

“All I could see were sparks in my eyes,” said one of the soldiers, a sergeant, recounting how the pursuing drone blew up, leaving him and his team wounded but somehow still alive. He asked to be identified only by his first name, Oleksandr, according to military protocol.

这群乌军中的一名中士，回想追赶他们的无人机如何爆炸，让他和同袍受伤却侥幸生还的经过时说，「当时我能看到的只有火花」。根据军事规约，他要求只透露自己名叫欧雷山大。

Fighting on the plain in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, where Oleksandr’s vehicle was hit earlier this year, has raged for 10 months now in two phases: first with Ukrainian forces on the offense, and now on defense, as Russia escalates attacks on the area where Ukraine gained ground in last summer’s counteroffensive.

欧雷山大的装甲运兵车今年稍早在乌南札波罗热州平原被击中，当地战斗已持续10个月，分两个阶段：首先是乌军进攻，随著俄军加强攻击乌军去年夏季反攻收复的区域，现在乌军采守势。

Military analysts have described Ukraine’s strategy as “hold, build and strike” — holding the line in the country’s southeast, replenishing its units with fresh troops and hitting back with long-range drones attacks on oil refineries and military logistics targets inside Russia.

分析家曾形容乌军的策略是「守住、建立和打击」，守住乌国东南部防线、为军队补充生力军，并以远距无人机反击，攻击俄罗斯境内炼油厂和军事后勤目标。

Ukraine recaptured the village of Robotyne last summer, in the high-water mark of a counteroffensive that not only failed to achieve a breakthrough, but left the Russians in a strong enough position to start pushing back across the southern front.

乌军去年夏季收复罗博蒂村，时值反攻全盛期。但这次反攻不仅未能突破，还让俄军维持足够强大的态势，在整个南部前线开始反击。

Russian forces attacked the pocket around Robotyne and areas nearby nine times over the past day, the general staff headquarters said Tuesday. When the Ukrainians captured the village last year, they pierced a main Russian anti-tank defensive line; now the Russians are trying to push them back and fill in that gap.

乌克兰总参谋部周二表示，俄军过去一天攻击罗博蒂村周围和附近地区九次。乌军去年收复该村落时，突破一道俄军主要反战车防线；现在俄军正试图反击并填补这个缺口。

Like Bakhmut and Avdiivka, Robotyne, which had a prewar population of about 500 people, is now just ruins. Throughout the war, U.S. officials have repeatedly raised concerns that Ukraine was holding out too long in defending such places, committing soldiers and ammunition to cling to devastated towns with little strategic value.

就像巴赫姆特和阿夫迪夫卡，战争前人口约500人的罗博蒂村现在只剩废墟。整个战争期间，美国官员一再提出疑虑，认为乌军为了保卫这类地区坚持太久，投入太多兵力和弹药坚守被摧毁且缺乏战略价值的城镇。

But for Ukraine, the area around Robotyne remains worth fighting for, at least for now.

但对乌克兰而言，罗博蒂村周围地区仍值得奋战，至少目前是如此。

“At some point, symbolic becomes strategic,” Yurii Sak, a former adviser to the minister of defense, said of the fighting. Defending the gains of the offensive, he said, is “important for morale, it’s important for the support of the population, it’s important for the inner belief in our potential to win.”

乌国防部长前顾问萨克提及战斗时说，「有时候，象征性质会变成战略性质」。他说，守住成果「对士气很重要、对民众支持很重要，也对我们能获胜的内在信念很重要」。

文／Andrew E. Kramer and Maria Varenikova 译／罗方妤

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【张佑生】

乌克兰与俄国作战的窘态毕露，本文导言用了ducking，dashed，chased，外加两次爆炸(explode)。Duck当动词时很有画面，就是迅速缩头或压低上半身，避免被发现或击中。

美国已故总统雷根曾遭枪击，在病床上打趣告诉妻子南西：Honey, I forgot to duck.说自己忘记低头才没躲开子弹。这字也有逃避责任的意思：The Opposition reckons the Health Secretary has ducked all the difficult decisions.

Duck是快闪，dash是快冲、拔腿狂奔，跟hurry和rush都是赶紧。Hurry是比通常的速度更快，可能是因为进度落后或迟到。Rush也是加快速度，指没仔细考虑就行动。Dash是赶去某个地方，特别是因为某件重要或急迫的事情：I’ve got to dash to the shops to get some more milk.

Chase跟duck及dash一样有急迫感，文中用被动语态，以指被追赶，不快点就小命不保。Chase也有追求、争取的意思：There are too many schools chasing too few pupils.