Gruesome images emerge from a neighborhood once besieged by Russian forces

Gruesome images emerge from a neighborhood once besieged¹ by Russian forces

Transcript²

The Biden administration is planning to announce new sanctions on Russia in response to the horrific scenes of alleged³ war crimes in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

After seeing the harrowing images of burned and mutilated corpses⁴ in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, you can't help but have a reaction. The Biden administration's response to those gruesome scenes is more sanctions on Russia. Russia denies its troops committed any crimes and calls the report from Bucha fake and the scene staged. NPR's Nathan Rott traveled there. And we want to warn that some of his reporting includes very graphic⁵ details.

NATHAN ROTT, BYLINE⁶: We visited three different parts of Bucha yesterday. None of them, I should say right now, appeared staged or fake in any way. One of the places we went was a street that was littered with burnt military transports, bullet casings, torn metal. It was in a residential⁷ area. Every home there was either destroyed or severely⁸ damaged. I was told by a resident there that multiple people, civilians⁹, had died on that street. And we actually saw that in another location. Ukrainian police had found a pile of six bodies earlier this week - four women, two men - who had been killed by gunshots and then burnt. And we watched as they moved those badly burnt bodies into bags.

MARTINEZ: Wow. You also had a chance to talk to some of the people still there. And I can imagine those stories are probably pretty grim.

ROTT: Yeah. The first week we visited, I talked to a man who had a horrifying¹⁰ story. He said three Russians had asked him to come out of his house with his daughter and her husband. And they were asking about Nazis¹¹. Where are the Nazis, they said. He said there were none. But they took his son-in-law to the street and shot him in the head. At another place we went, a kind of mixed commercial residential area in Bucha, we met a crowd of people who were waiting for food and other goods to be dropped off. They were mostly older people who had remained. And I asked a man, Petro Trotsenko (ph), if he felt any relief since the Russian troops had left. Here's our translator, Luka, asking and Trotsenko's answer.

LUKA: (Non-English language spoken).

PETRO TROTSENKO: (Non-English language spoken).

ROTT: He begins to cry.

TROTSENKO: (Non-English language spoken).

LUKA: He can't say it with words.

TROTSENKO: (Non-English language spoken).

ROTT: "I want you to know," he says, "I was a soldier for the Soviet¹² Union in Afghanistan when I was younger. And compared to what just happened here," he said, "that was heaven."

MARTINEZ: You're back in Kyiv now. How are the people there reacting to the news that's come out of Bucha?

ROTT: I mean, they're horrified¹³. They're angry. They're frustrated¹⁴ that this war continues and that they're not getting more support. I talked to a man named Daniel Bilak, a Canadian-born local who's been an adviser¹⁵ to multiple prime ministers here in the past. Now he, like many civilians here, is serving with Ukraine's territorial¹⁶ defense¹⁷. And here's what he had to say.

DANIEL BILAK: It looks as if the West is happy to fight Putin down to the last Ukrainian. And it does not have the courage of its own convictions. And this is now a moral issue. After Bucha, if NATO does not have moral clarity around this issue, then it starts to bear moral culpability¹⁸.

ROTT: And, A, that's a sentiment I've heard from a lot of people here, frustration¹⁹ that NATO has not gotten more involved since these horrors have come to light.

MARTINEZ: NPR's Nathan Rott. Nathan, thanks.

ROTT: Yeah, thank you.

1 besieged   

包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Paris was besieged for four months and forced to surrender. 巴黎被围困了四个月后被迫投降。
• The community besieged the newspaper with letters about its recent editorial. 公众纷纷来信对报社新近发表的社论提出诘问，弄得报社应接不暇。

2 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。

3 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

4 corpses   

n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

5 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

6 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。

7 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

8 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

9 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。

10 horrifying   

a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的

参考例句：

• He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。

11 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》

12 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。

13 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。

14 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

16 territorial   

adj.领土的，领地的

参考例句：

• The country is fighting to preserve its territorial integrity.该国在为保持领土的完整而进行斗争。
• They were not allowed to fish in our territorial waters.不允许他们在我国领海捕鱼。

17 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。

18 culpability   

n.苛责，有罪

参考例句：

• As if the estrangement between them had come of any culpability of hers. 姐弟俩疏远的责任竟仿佛落到了她的身上！ 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
• The offence, as now defined in English law, covers a wide spectrum of culpability. 英国法律规定，违法包括很多种过失行为。 来自互联网

19 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。