美国国家公共电台 NPR--Putin claimed Russian-speakers were being killed in Ukraine. Was that true?

Putin claimed Russian-speakers were being killed in Ukraine. Was that true?

Transcript¹

The Russian leader said his forces invaded Ukraine because a genocide was underway against Russian-speakers. People in Ukraine say that claim is a hoax².

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russian speakers in Ukraine are under attack, and he claims this invasion is to protect them. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley traveled across the country before the war to see whether that's true.

ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE³: Oh, so you have three floors.

ANDRIY KONONENKO: Three floors. Come follow me.

BEARDSLEY: Andriy Kononenko opened his language school in Kyiv in 2001. Today he has branches across Ukraine. He says students come from around the world to study mostly Russian.

KONONENKO: Europe, U.S., Great Britain - also, we get quite a bit of people from Asia sometimes.

BEARDSLEY: OK. When I looked you up - I looked on the site. It said, come and learn Russian in Odesa and Kyiv. And I was thinking, oh, that's funny because Putin said there's a genocide against Russian speakers. So...

KONONENKO: Yeah (laughter). That's a big hoax. There's nothing of that going on. Kyiv is - by far and large is a Russian-speaking place.

BEARDSLEY: Kononenko says Ukrainian was suppressed during Soviet⁴ times, but since Russia launched a separatist war in the East eight years ago, it's enjoyed a resurgence⁵. Ukraine's Parliament has made Ukrainian the country's official language, but the law does not prohibit the use of Russian, which the vast majority of the country speaks fluently. Russian is President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's mother tongue. Polls taken before the invasion show the law had majority support, even in the east of the country, which traditionally has been closer to Russia.

(SOUNDBITE OF CAFE AMBIENCE)

BEARDSLEY: I meet English professor Tatyana Smytska at a trendy cafe in the eastern city of Kharkiv before it came under attack. Today Smytska is hiding in a bunker.

TATYANA SMYTSKA: The law says that in public places, everything must be in Ukrainian, until you ask to speak another language.

BEARDSLEY: And then it's fine to switch to Russian, she says, pointing out that the law applies to the waitstaff in this cafe. Smytska says the grinding Russian-backed separatist war next door pushed many more people here to want to speak in Ukrainian.

SMYTSKA: Our language is the protection from Russian because when they come here, they say, we don't understand, and somehow they start to understand that we are different.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken). Thank you.

BEARDSLEY: Vadim Lyakh is the mayor of Slovyansk, a town in the eastern Donbas region that briefly⁶ came under separatist control in 2014. I meet him the day before the invasion. Lyakh calls Putin's talk of Russian speakers being persecuted⁷ absurd.

VADIM LYAKH: (Non-English language spoken).

BEARDSLEY: "There's absolutely no discrimination," he says. "Official correspondence in our town hall is in Ukrainian, but people continue to speak Russian at work and at home, as we always have.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing in non-English language).

BEARDSLEY: Back in Kyiv, at Maidan Square, a few days before the invasion, a ceremony is taking place for those who died in the 2014 uprising against the pro-Russian government. Seventy-eight-year-old Maria, who prefers not to give her last name, chokes up as she thinks of them.

MARIA: (Through interpreter) My heart is breaking for all these young man who laid their lives for freedom, and my soul is breaking for the mothers who lost their sons.

(Speaking Russian).

BEARDSLEY: "We thought Russians were our brothers and sisters," she adds, "but I want to tell the world they're our enemies." This Ukrainian patriot⁸, like millions of others, expresses her sorrow and anger in her native language - Russian.

Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Kyiv.

(SOUNDBITE OF ROBERT DE BORON'S "SICK")

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 hoax   

v.欺骗，哄骗，愚弄；n.愚弄人，恶作剧

参考例句：

• They were the victims of a cruel hoax.他们是一个残忍恶作剧的受害者。
• They hoax him out of his money.他们骗去他的钱。

3 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。

4 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

5 resurgence   

n.再起，复活，再现

参考例句：

• A resurgence of his grief swept over Nim.悲痛又涌上了尼姆的心头。
• Police say drugs traffickers are behind the resurgence of violence.警方说毒贩是暴力活动重新抬头的罪魁祸首。

6 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

7 persecuted   

（尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人

参考例句：

• Throughout history, people have been persecuted for their religious beliefs. 人们因宗教信仰而受迫害的情况贯穿了整个历史。
• Members of these sects are ruthlessly persecuted and suppressed. 这些教派的成员遭到了残酷的迫害和镇压。

8 patriot   

n.爱国者，爱国主义者

参考例句：

• He avowed himself a patriot.他自称自己是爱国者。
• He is a patriot who has won the admiration of the French already.他是一个已经赢得法国人敬仰的爱国者。