VOA慢速英语2022--乌克兰东部火车站遇袭事件已致50人死亡

Ukraine Says Missile Strike Kills 50 People at Train Station

A missile hit a train station Friday where thousands of people had gathered to flee Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine, killing¹ at least 50 people, Ukrainian officials said. Dozens more were injured.

Images from the scene showed covered bodies and people's belongings² on the ground around the station, in the city of Kramatorsk. A burned rocket was also found on the ground, with the words "for the children" painted on it in Russian.

About 4,000 civilians⁴ were in and around the station, the office of Ukraine's prosecutor⁵-general said. It added that most of the victims were women and children trying to leave the area. They had been warned that Russian forces were planning to launch a major new offensive in the country's east, Ukrainian officials said.

Russia's Defense⁶ Ministry⁷ denied attacking the station, which sits inside Ukraine's contested Donbas area. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian leaders accused Russia's military of targeting a place where only civilians were gathered.

"The inhuman⁸ Russians are not changing their methods," Zelenskyy said on social media.

"Without the strength or courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically¹⁰ destroying the civilian³ population," he added. "This is an evil without limits. And if it is not punished, then it will never stop," he said.

Britain's Defense Minister Ben Wallace denounced the train station attack, saying "the striking of civilians and critical infrastructure¹¹ is a war crime."

"The people just wanted to get away for evacuation," Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said. She spoke¹² while visiting Bucha, a town north of Kyiv, Ukraine's capital. Ukrainians discovered many bodies on the streets and in mass graves in Bucha after Russian troops withdrew.

Venediktova watched as workers pulled bodies from a mass grave near a church. Black body bags were placed next to each other in the mud. She said that none of the dead were Russians. Most of the victims had been shot. The prosecutor general's office is investigating the deaths as possible war crimes.

Russia has failed to take Ukraine's capital and has moved its troops away from northern Ukraine. It has recently been sending troops into Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking, industrial area in eastern Ukraine. Moscow-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years and control some areas. The train station attacked is in an area under Ukrainian government control.

This week, Ukrainian officials warned citizens in the area to leave as soon as possible for safer parts of the country. They said Russia had agreed to establish evacuation paths in the east.

One expert said only Russia would have a reason to attack civilian railway infrastructure in the Donbas, and that Ukraine would not kill its own civilians on purpose in "a war of survival."

"The Ukrainian military is desperately¹³ trying to reinforce units in the area," said Justin Bronk. He is a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London. Bronk added that the rail station was important for the movement of troops and people.

In his nightly television speech, Zelenskyy said officials had already discovered horrors worse than those found in Bucha in Borodyanka, a neighborhood northwest of Kyiv.

"There, on every street, is what the world saw in Bucha and other towns in the Kyiv region....The same cruelty. The same terrible crimes," Zelenskyy said.

NATO nations agreed to increase arms supplies when Ukraine's foreign minister appealed for more weapons after reports that Russian forces had carried out atrocities¹⁴.

The United Nations estimates that more than 4.3 million people have fled Ukraine since the war began and more than 12 million people are trapped in areas under attack.

Words in This Story

dozen –n. a group of twelve people or things

courage –n. the ability to do something that you know is difficult or dangerous

cynical⁹ –adj. believing that people are generally selfish and dishonest

infrastructure –n. the basic equipment and structures (such as roads and bridges) that are needed for a country, region, or organization to function properly

evacuation -n. to remove (someone) from a dangerous place

desperate –adj. very sad and upset because of having little or no hope

cruel -adj. a desire to cause others to suffer

atrocity¹⁵ -n. a very cruel or terrible act or action

1 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。

2 belongings   

n.私人物品，私人财物

参考例句：

• I put a few personal belongings in a bag.我把几件私人物品装进包中。
• Your personal belongings are not dutiable.个人物品不用纳税。

3 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

4 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

5 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

6 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

7 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

8 inhuman   

adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的

参考例句：

• We must unite the workers in fighting against inhuman conditions.我们必须使工人们团结起来反对那些难以忍受的工作条件。
• It was inhuman to refuse him permission to see his wife.不容许他去看自己的妻子是太不近人情了。

9 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。

10 cynically   

adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地

参考例句：

• "Holding down the receiver,'said Daisy cynically. “挂上话筒在讲。”黛西冷嘲热讽地说。 来自英汉文学 - 盖茨比
• The Democrats sensibly (if cynically) set about closing the God gap. 民主党在明智（有些讽刺）的减少宗教引起的问题。 来自互联网

11 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

13 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

14 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

15 atrocity   

n.残暴，暴行

参考例句：

• These people are guilty of acts of great atrocity.这些人犯有令人发指的暴行。
• I am shocked by the atrocity of this man's crimes.这个人行凶手段残忍狠毒使我震惊。